A novel concept needs more than good engineering logic behind it – it needs proof that it can be installed and maintained efficiently on site. That’s where Kinewell’s ForeCoast® Marine installation logistics software comes in.
Our software has been used in a University of Bristol Master’s dissertation project with Wood Thilsted to help optimise the offshore wind installation and O&M logistics of a novel offshore foundation concept: the Neretek BC90™.
Wood Thilsted is a leading offshore wind foundation design consultancy, with projects including Dogger Bank, Vineyard Wind and Thor. Neretek is an offshore wind technology company founded by Wood Thilsted and COP Frontier to unlock the potential of deepwater offshore wind, with the BC90™ as its flagship foundation.
The BC90™ is designed to bring the simplicity and scalability of monopiles to water depths of 60 to 90 metres. By bridging the gap between traditional fixed-bottom foundations and floating wind technologies, the BC90™ has the potential to unlock more seabed, access stronger wind resources, and accelerate deployment at lower cost and lower risk.
Solving Offshore Wind Installation Logistics with ForeCoast® Marine
ForeCoast® Marine was used to plan and evaluate the installation and operations and maintenance (O&M) logistics for the BC90™ at a hypothetical site in Scotland.
The software simulates how a project’s construction or O&M campaign would have played out using historical or user-uploaded forecast metocean data, allowing users to quickly compare strategies, manage weather windows, identify bottlenecks, and evaluate risk before committing to a delivery plan.
Through this project, ForeCoast® Marine was used to:
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- Model a range of vessel combinations for the installation campaign.
- Test different installation processes and sequencing.
- Apply varying maximum wave height working limits.
- Compare installation durations and costs across design options.
The software’s ability to easily ingest key operational data and generate clear charts meant a complex offshore wind planning problem could be turned into something well-defined and manageable, even within the scope of an MSc project.
Feedback from the field
“We would like to thank Kinewell for providing such a valuable resource to support the project, which was extremely quick and intuitive to learn. ForeCoast® Marine was key to ensuring the project’s core aims were met, and we received extensive help from the Kinewell support team whenever the students had queries on using the software and interpreting the results.”
Paul Harper, Project Supervisor and Lecturer in Engineering Design at University of Bristol
Proving out the next generation of offshore foundations
Innovation in deeper water and floating wind can’t rely on design promise alone – it must be tested against real installation conditions before it earns industry confidence.
By simulating vessel strategies and weather limits against historical metocean data, ForeCoast® Marine delivers exactly that: cost and duration evidence that stands up before capital or industry buy-in is committed.
It also reflects Kinewell’s broader mission: making complex offshore wind engineering challenges easier to model, understand, and de-risk, whether for industry-leading developers or the researchers and engineers shaping the sector’s future. It’s part of a wider pattern of academic collaboration that underpins much of Kinewell’s product development.
We’re proud that ForeCoast® Marine, in partnership with the University of Bristol, has played a role in advancing Neretek’s BC90™ concept, building on nearly a decade of development by Wood Thilsted.
Interested in how ForeCoast® Marine could support your own installation or O&M planning? Request a discovery call to see it in action.
