Breakthrough in U.S. Offshore Wind: Keystone Engineering Cuts Installation Costs by 20%

• 24 November 2025
• International News
• 922 Views

The successful completion of the Block Island Wind Farm, the first commercial offshore wind project in the United States, is being hailed as a major proof point for the industry, thanks in part to advanced engineering software. Keystone Engineering Inc. leveraged Bentley SACS Wind Turbine to design the deep-water substructures, achieving a 20% reduction in installation costs for the foundation and significantly shortening the design schedule.

Keystone Engineering was tasked with designing jacket-type substructures for the five 6-megawatt wind turbine generators. The challenge lay in compensating for the complex, coupled effects of aerodynamic and hydrodynamic loading, including extreme loading situations such as hurricane-force winds, over a 20-year design life.

However, Bentley’s software enabled the design team to create simultaneous simulations for multiple design iterations. Using the SACS Wind Turbine, Keystone performed more than 3,000 time-domain simulations for each iteration and conducted over 150 simulations in parallel. This shortened the design cycle time by 50% compared to typical European offshore wind projects, a major return on investment (ROI).

SACS Wind Turbine also allowed the team to streamline the analysis process and accurately manage the terabytes of project data needed to perform thousands of simulations, minimizing the possibility of errors.

In addition, by leveraging technology adapted from the offshore oil and gas industry for the steel jacket foundation design and optimizing it with the SACS Wind Turbine, Keystone realized major material and installation savings.

The iterative design optimization using the SACS Wind Turbine made the deck and jacket substructures 15% lighter than a previous design used for the same type of wind turbine in the North Sea. By optimizing the amount of steel needed for the foundations, the client was able to save 20% in installation costs.

The successful deployment of the Block Island Wind Farm, supported by Bentley software, establishes a viable design and fabrication process, setting a key precedent for the future of the U.S. offshore wind industry.

• Bentley Systems
• SACS
• Block Island Wind Farm