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Open AccessArticle
Modeling of Marine Assembly Logistics for an Offshore Floating Photovoltaic Plant Subject to Weather Dependencies
by
Lu-Jan Huang
Lu-Jan Huang 1,*,
Simone Mancini
Simone Mancini 1 and
Minne de Jong
Minne de Jong 2
1
TNO Wind Energy, Kessler Park 1, 2288 GH Rijswijk, The Netherlands
2
TNO Solar Energy, Westerduinweg 3, 1755 LE Petten, The Netherlands
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2025, 13(8), 1493; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13081493 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 2 June 2025
/
Revised: 28 July 2025
/
Accepted: 30 July 2025
/
Published: 2 August 2025
Abstract
Floating solar technology has gained significant attention as part of the global expansion of renewable energy due to its potential for installation in underutilized water bodies. Several countries, including the Netherlands, have initiated efforts to extend this technology from inland freshwater applications to open offshore environments, particularly within offshore wind farm areas. This development is motivated by the synergistic benefits of increasing site energy density and leveraging the existing offshore grid infrastructure. The deployment of offshore floating photovoltaic (OFPV) systems involves assembling multiple modular units in a marine environment, introducing operational risks that may give rise to safety concerns. To mitigate these risks, weather windows must be considered prior to the task execution to ensure continuity between weather-sensitive activities, which can also lead to additional time delays and increased costs. Consequently, optimizing marine logistics becomes crucial to achieving the cost reductions necessary for making OFPV technology economically viable. This study employs a simulation-based approach to estimate the installation duration of a 5 MWp OFPV plant at a Dutch offshore wind farm site, started in different months and under three distinct risk management scenarios. Based on 20 years of hindcast wave data, the results reveal the impacts of campaign start months and risk management policies on installation duration. Across all the scenarios, the installation duration during the autumn and winter period is 160% longer than the one in the spring and summer period. The average installation durations, based on results from 12 campaign start months, are 70, 80, and 130 days for the three risk management policies analyzed. The result variation highlights the additional time required to mitigate operational risks arising from potential discontinuity between highly interdependent tasks (e.g., offshore platform assembly and mooring). Additionally, it is found that the weather-induced delays are mainly associated with the campaigns of pre-laying anchors and platform and mooring line installation compared with the other campaigns. In conclusion, this study presents a logistics modeling methodology for OFPV systems, demonstrated through a representative case study based on a state-of-the-art truss-type design. The primary contribution lies in providing a framework to quantify the performance of OFPV installation strategies at an early design stage. The findings of this case study further highlight that marine installation logistics are highly sensitive to local marine conditions and the chosen installation strategy, and should be integrated early in the OFPV design process to help reduce the levelized cost of electricity.
Share and Cite
MDPI and ACS Style
Huang, L.-J.; Mancini, S.; de Jong, M.
Modeling of Marine Assembly Logistics for an Offshore Floating Photovoltaic Plant Subject to Weather Dependencies. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2025, 13, 1493.
https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13081493
AMA Style
Huang L-J, Mancini S, de Jong M.
Modeling of Marine Assembly Logistics for an Offshore Floating Photovoltaic Plant Subject to Weather Dependencies. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 2025; 13(8):1493.
https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13081493
Chicago/Turabian Style
Huang, Lu-Jan, Simone Mancini, and Minne de Jong.
2025. "Modeling of Marine Assembly Logistics for an Offshore Floating Photovoltaic Plant Subject to Weather Dependencies" Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 13, no. 8: 1493.
https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13081493
APA Style
Huang, L.-J., Mancini, S., & de Jong, M.
(2025). Modeling of Marine Assembly Logistics for an Offshore Floating Photovoltaic Plant Subject to Weather Dependencies. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 13(8), 1493.
https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13081493
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