New anchor system promises efficient mooring of floating offshore wind turbines

As the race to harness offshore wind power accelerates, a Texas A&M University civil engineering professor is literally driving innovation.

Dr. Charles Aubeny, a professor in the Zachry School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has developed an anchoring system to safely and affordably moor thousands of floating wind turbines in deep water. The innovative Deeply Embedded Ring Anchor (DERA) system provides a more efficient solution than traditional anchors created for the oil and gas industry, which are not ideal for large-scale renewable energy efforts. This research is published in Geotechnical Frontiers 2025.

Aubeny began exploring the concept around 2017. His lab’s research, including collaborations with partners at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Maine, and the University of California, Davis, has demonstrated that deep embedding is the key to increasing efficiency. Subsequent concept development led to commercialization efforts with recently graduated doctoral student Dr. Junho Lee.

Aubeny said the offshore wind industry is expected to grow significantly, with an estimated 270,000 megawatts of floating wind capacity by 2050. This expansion will require a large number of anchors (approximately 40,000 anchors for the projected 13,500 floating wind turbines, approximately 3 anchors per turbine). In comparison, a typical oil and gas project typically requires 12 to 20 anchors. Renewable energy on this scale requires new approaches.

“Existing anchors were primarily developed for oil and gas applications and were not particularly economical, nor did they really need to be economical,” he said. “Anchors in a multibillion-dollar oil production system represent less than 1% of the cost. Oil companies have little incentive to sharpen their pencils and cut costs in the name of efficiency. But for floating renewables, mooring and anchoring systems represent about 15% to 20% of the project cost.”

Anchor strength increases the deeper it is embedded in the soil. Deep embedding in the marine environment has proven to be a difficult task, but recent research has demonstrated that a new tracking system can be used to drive anchors deep below the ocean floor using existing marine equipment. This deep placement allows the anchor to be significantly smaller and more compact than traditional anchor designs, resulting in significant cost savings and reduced logistics effort.

One of the major advantages of the DERA system is its ability to adapt to different seabed conditions. Anchors can be installed in soft clay using suction techniques, or in sand or layered soil using vibration methods. This flexibility is particularly valuable in regions such as Taiwan and South Korea, where sandy soils are prone to geohazard risks such as liquefaction due to earthquakes and erosion due to strong currents. Because DERA is buried deep under the sea, it is unaffected by surface-level geological hazards, ensuring high load capacity and excellent reliability.

DERA’s compact size reduces the need for support vessels and allows construction at existing plants, addressing logistics issues and avoiding infrastructure issues.

“The idea is to have a small, efficient anchor that solves a lot of problems,” Aubeny explained. “This allows the use of existing manufacturing plants, reduces demands on port facilities and minimizes the need for specialized vessels.”

DERA addresses the need for renewable energy innovation. Aubeny and his team have developed a reliable and affordable anchoring solution that optimizes offshore wind farms, increases geotechnical efficiency, and facilitates widespread adoption of sustainable energy. The versatility of this system also makes it suitable for offshore enterprises beyond wind energy.