Mobile Offshore Platforms for Power Generation: The Energy Ship

There is an increasing awareness that the exploitation of offshore wind may become the main technology option for decarbonization of the global energy production systems. Various floating wind turbines are therefore being studied at the present time. In this paper we propose to proceed from floating to moving platforms by equipping autonomous sailing ships with hydrokinetic turbines and thereby to open up vast wind rich ocean areas for renewable power generation. The turbine output power is stored either in electric batteries or is fed into electrolysers to produce hydrogen which is compressed and stored in tanks. We provide a summary of our latest technoeconomic optimization studies of this energy ship concept using Multi Pole Systems Analysis and we describe the design, development and testing of a small-scale autonomous hydrofoil boat to serve as a technology demonstrator.