Bentley Systems’ Tech Cuts Costs for Deep-Water Wind Farms in China

• Proeksa Meas
• 28 April 2026
• Construction Focus
• 809 Views

The Longyuan New Energy Engineering Design and Research Institute (LDI) in China has utilized Bentley Systems’ SACS and PLAXIS software to pioneer a more efficient multi-bucket jacket foundation design for their new offshore wind farm.

The challenge of this project is heading into deeper water, which brought new engineering hurdles for offshore wind farm foundations.

Traditional foundation methods often prove too expensive or structurally weak for deep-sea environments characterized by giant waves and complex soil layers.

LDI overcame these obstacles by integrating Bentley’s geotechnical and structural analysis tools, which allowed the team to create high-fidelity 3D digital replicas of the marine environment.

This integrated approach eliminated the need for manual data transfer between separate programs, which was previously a major source of inaccuracy and lost time.

The results of switching to these advanced digital tools were significant. LDI reported a 30% reduction in modeling time and a 10% increase in design accuracy. By optimizing the use of structural steel, the project is estimated to slash construction costs by 15% to 30%.

For a large-scale 1,000-megawatt wind farm, these efficiencies could save up to CNY 936 million. Beyond the financial gains, the new suction-type foundations offer a more sustainable choice for the industry, as they cause minimal ecological disturbance and can be fully recycled at the end of their service life.