A team led by Dr. Charles Aubeny, professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University, has developed a deeply embedded ring anchor system suitable for deep-sea floating wind power. This research achievement, published in the Frontiers in Geotechnical Engineering 2025, provides a new technical solution for offshore wind power infrastructure construction.

The deeply embedded ring anchor system significantly enhances the load-bearing capacity of mooring systems by burying the anchor body deep beneath the seabed. Dr. Aubeny stated: "Existing anchoring technologies primarily serve the oil and gas industry, and their economic viability and applicability struggle to meet the demands of large-scale renewable energy projects." Compared to traditional anchoring schemes, this novel deeply embedded ring anchor system demonstrates strong adaptability across various seabed conditions, including soft clay, sand, and layered soils, while its compact design reduces manufacturing and installation costs.

As the global offshore wind industry continues to grow, floating wind power installation capacity is projected to reach 270GW by 2050. Achieving this goal will require approximately 13,500 floating wind turbines and about 40,000 supporting anchoring devices. Dr. Aubeny noted: "In floating renewable energy projects, mooring and anchoring systems account for 15% to 20% of total costs." The development of the deeply embedded ring anchor system is specifically aimed at addressing this large-scale construction demand.

The deeply embedded ring anchor system can be applied to soft clay seabeds using suction installation technology or installed in sandy layers via vibration methods. Its deep embedding characteristics enable the system to effectively avoid the impact of surface seabed geological hazards, holding special application value in complex geological areas such as Taiwan and Korea. Researchers have achieved deep anchoring below the seabed surface through a novel follower system, providing an innovative solution for offshore wind power infrastructure construction.

This deeply embedded ring anchor system is not only suitable for the wind power sector but can also be extended to other marine engineering applications. The system's compact design reduces reliance on specialized installation vessels and port facilities, allowing production in existing manufacturing plants and providing technical support for large-scale offshore renewable energy development.