French engineering company Dolfines is teaming up with Chinese offshore equipment outfit CIMC Raffles to work on floating offshore wind development in Europe and Asia.
The duo have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the commercial development of their activities.
CIMC Raffles is an offshore engineering, procurement and construction company that owns four research and development centres and three shipyards in China that are suited to supporting offshore energy deployment, Dolfines said.
Dolfines has developed the TrussFloat semi-submersible platform that can be utilised for floating wind.
Dolfines chief executive Jean-Claude Bourdon said: “We are very proud to work together with CIMC Raffles who has all the EPC competences and construction facilities that are needed for an industrialised mass production of floating wind turbines.
“Moreover, the modular construction concept of TrussFloat allows also to comply with local content requirements by using existing construction and transportation infrastructure, even far off the coasts.
“The signing of this memorandum of understanding shows that Dolfines’ strong dynamics is not stopped by the current sanitary crisis.”
CIMC Raffles marketing director Fu Qiang said: “Dolfines has developed a light and passive semi-submersible platform for a large spectrum of floating wind applications.
“Together with Dolfines, we want to accompany O&G majors towards a carbon neutral future, securing profitable offshore production by giving O&G infrastructure a second life.”