There is a considerable potential for producing energy such as wind, wave and tidal current in the world’s oceans. The forces necessary for anchoring the rotors or turbines have to be transferred safely into the sea bed. Especially when producing energy from tidal current, innovative concepts for drilled pile foundations are called for. But also in the field of wind power, the presently common driven foundation structures are more and more replaced by lowvibration, considerably more silent bored pile foundations, mainly to protect the environment.

Particularly for rocky subsoil and high current velocity Bauer has developed a new type of subsea drilling technique and deployed it for the first time when making the foundation for a hydro turbine off the Scottish coast.

The foundation structure consists of a mono pile made of steel with large diameter which is installed by rock drilling and fixed with high-strength mortar.

The conditions at offshore sites for tidal power have extreme side conditions. Wind and waves, very strong current of up to 5 m/s whereupon the direction changes periodically, are added by water depths of up to 60 m and rocky sea bed.

The underwater drilling rig BSD 3000 is operated from a work boat which is kept into position via a control mode run by GPS. Rotary drilling is applied with full face roller bit and heavy weights with air flush, which hardly affects the surroundings.

Further interesting information