Advanced Anchoring System for California Floating Offshore Wind
Triton Anchor LLC
Recipient
Recipient Location
$40,182
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
The project team completed a desktop study reviewing existing geotechnical and seismic information for the Humboldt and Morro Bay Wind Energy Areas, supported by experts from Haley & Aldrich and WSP. They also developed an offshore geotechnical investigation plan for 2026, vetted by developers and regulators, and finished a marine life and habitat assessment showing no significant added impacts to protected species. On workforce and community factors, BW Research identified key industries needed for anchor manufacturing and highlighted where California’s supply chain is strong or needs development, informing a workforce and stakeholder engagement plan that emphasizes opportunities for tribal and disadvantaged communities. The team finalized Phase I and II procurement roadmaps, finding that Humboldt Bay and Morro Bay each have different port strengths, suppliers, and workforce resources, and explored modular manufacturing and shipping approaches to move anchors through the state. Triton Anchor also partnered with Deep Reach Technology to assess site conditions and mooring configurations. Finally, Triton launched the centrifuge study with UC Davis and Haley & Aldrich, creating a test plan to evaluate anchor performance in soils typical of California’s deep‑water wind areas, with model construction and testing planned for 2026.
The Issue
Developing wind energy in California’s deep offshore environment necessitates infrastructure that is designed to float on the ocean’s surface and is anchored to the seabed. Unique to California are the continuous risks of earthquakes and other seismic anomalies like liquefaction and shifting soils that are known to compromise traditional anchor behaviors resulting in loss of mooring and platform station-keeping. The proposed solution is an anchoring system specifically designed to moor floating offshore wind platforms for California’s dynamic soil conditions and seismic hazards and has the potential to lower energy costs for ratepayers.
Project Innovation
This project will develop a floating offshore wind turbine anchor system specifically designed for California's dynamic soil conditions but based on the Recipient's existing technology involving helical piles grouped together with an exterior skirt to provide more efficient geotechnical holding capacity. This novel anchoring system would provide more capacity per pound of steel and the installation would be more cost effective and environmentally friendly due to the minimal noise of installation. The Recipient will collect data on site-specific conditions and evaluate the seismic hazards as they relate to the California offshore Wind Energy Areas. Using that data and mooring load details from analyses, the Recipient will design an anchoring system best suited for California sites. The design will be evaluated for its use with shared anchor and mooring configurations, and will be fabricated and tested in a centrifuge, leading to supply chain assessment to assess manufacturability in California.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
• Provide exclusive geotechnical evaluation, met ocean design data, and marine life assessments unique to California's offshore wind lease areas
• Developing a supply chain for offshore wind anchoring components within the country
• This project will result in the ratepayer benefit of lower costs by developing an anchoring system that can withstand the seismic hazards while being optimized for the site-specific geotechnical conditions that results in a lower weight system.
Affordability
The innovative anchor design provides a 50% reduction in anchor manufacturing and installation costs compared to conventional driven-pile anchors
Reliability
The project will collect data on California wind energy area site-specific conditions and evaluate the seismic hazards to inform and test the anchor design and ensure reliability of offshore infrastructure.
Key Project Members
Zachary Miller
Nathan Krohn
Subrecipients
The Regents of the University of California on behalf of the Davis Campus
WSP USA Inc.
Haley & Aldrich, Inc.
Deep Reach Technology Inc.
Glosten, Inc.
Match Partners
Triton Anchor LLC
Deep Reach Technology Inc.
Glosten, Inc.
