Floating offshore wind

Floating offshore wind

Floating offshore wind concerns wind turbines that are located offshore and assembled on floating foundations in water depth bellow 50m and anchored to the seabed with a mooring system. Floating offshore wind turbines operate on the same principle as onshore wind turbine: its use the kinetic energy of the wind to transform it into mechanical energy then into electricity via an electric generator. Offshore wind turbines must withstand severe marine conditions because of their offshore location. Offshore wind turbines are installed in wind farms or wind parks with between 20 and 120 wind turbines of several megawatts of rated unit capacity (more than 10 MW for new-generation turbines).

With 65MW of floating wind installed capacity at the end of 2020, Europe is leading the way both in terms of capacity deployed and technology development, and is expected to remain at the top with high expectations such as 60 GW to be installed in 2050. The first commercial scale farms are expected in the coming years particularly with France having planned 3 bids in 2021 and 2022. The SEM-REV offshore test site of Centrale Nantes located off the Croisic in the Pays de la Loire Region has been hosting FLOATGEN since 2018, the first floating wind turbine in France developed by IDEOL, and is preparing to host the latest generation floating wind turbine from EOLINK.

WEAMEC has selected 60 research projects related to floating wind and has accompanied his members in 15 new European innovation projects. Finally, stakeholders from the Pays de la Loire Region deliver more than 80 initial trainings as well as continuous training from operator to engineer covering all the skills useful to the development of the floating offshore wind sector. WEAMEC continuous training, operated by Centrale Nantes and the University of Nantes, is intended for those whose, established in the Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) market, wish to improve their skills, as well as those whose wish to retrain and enter this emerging sector of the floating offshore wind power. This unique training at the French level has been in operation since 2016.