Economic influence of location in floating offshore wind farms

• Determination of location influence in lifecycle of floating offshore wind farm.
• Formulation of the costs the value of which depends on the location variables.
• Development of the location economic indexes.
• Results indicate the best areas where a floating offshore wind farm can be installed.
• Method to determine the importance of location in a floating offshore wind farm.

This paper aims to determine the influence that location has in the life-cycle of a floating offshore wind farm. For this purpose several steps have been considered: determination of the location variables, formulation of the costs whose value depends on these location variables, development of the location economic indexes based on the Levelized Cost of Energy and the Cost of Power, and introduction of the restricted areas where farms cannot be installed. This method will be applied to the particular case of a floating offshore wind farm with semisubmersible platforms and located in the Galician area (North-West of Spain). Results indicate the best location areas where a floating offshore wind farm can be installed in the region selected. This methodology will be useful to determine the importance of the location settings in terms of a floating offshore wind farm.