Floating Wind Turbine Installation Vessel (FWTIV)

A floating wind turbine installation vessel (FWTIV) handles floating offshore wind, where the turbine sits on a buoyant foundation (spar, semi-submersible, or barge) moored to the seabed rather than fixed on a monopile or jacket. Unlike a jack-up wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), which lifts its legs to a fixed seabed, floating units are usually integrated quayside at a port and towed out, so the FWTIV role centers on heavy-lift crane assembly, tow-out, hook-up, and mooring or dynamic-positioning support rather than a jacking operation. Projects such as Hywind Scotland and Kincardine used this quayside-integration model.