Offshore Wind Farms

10.2. Function and types of towers

Since the inception of the wind industry, the towers have been considered as one of the key components for wind turbines as they perform two fundamental functions: (1) provide access to a favorable wind resource by supporting the rotor at a sufficiently high hub height; and (2) provide a safe and reliable load path from the turbine to the foundation. In the following subsections, an overview of layout options for both land-based and offshore SSts is given. These alternatives differ in geometric layout and load paths, utilized materials, or both. Regardless of these choices, the towers must guarantee that the system modal characteristics are kept within the acceptable bounds and away from the turbine excitation ...