Technip Energies has acquired a stake in a Spanish start-up that has designed an offshore wind turbine floating platform with “environmental and operational benefits”.
Technip Energies has taken a 16.3% stake in X1 Wind, making it the lead investor in X1’s latest funding round, which also includes the participation of the European Commission-owned European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, advised by the European Investment Bank (EIB), and some of X1 Wind’s previous shareholders.
Under the terms of the agreement, Technip Energies will hold two of the nine seats on X1 Wind’s board.
This strategic investment is supplemented by an operational agreement whereby Technip Energies will support X1 Wind’s management through its participation in joint technical and commercialisation committees and bring its “engineering capabilities, offshore project execution and industrialisation know-how” to carry the X1 Wind concept to commercial application.
Technip Energies intends to use the new floater technology in its floating offshore wind offering.
The X1 Wind concept is based on a Tension Leg Platform (TLP) mooring, with a weathervaning system and a downwind turbine.
The design allows for a lighter floater design with a “significantly reduced” steel requirement and for a more efficient and restricted mooring system minimising the impact on seabed. It is scalable for turbines of 15MW capacities and upwards, facilitating cost- effective deployment for large-scale offshore wind farms.
Technip Energies and X1 Wind will collaborate on the development of the first commercial-scale demonstrator, as well as the related industrialisation and commercialisation plans of the technology.
Technip Energies vice president for floating offshore wind Willy Gauttier said: “With this investment and collaboration, Technip Energies demonstrates that it is not only addressing today’s floating offshore wind market with its current semi-submersible technology, it is also preparing the future with this promising design to become the leader of the next generation of floaters.
“Thanks to our offshore project execution and experience in developing technical concepts all the way to commercialisation, we are confident that X1 Wind will be a great addition to Technip Energies’ portfolio of technology solutions in the near future.”