Floating wind developer Ideol’s damping pool technology is ready for commercial-scale deployment after the first operational results from a demo off west France showed the unit met expectations.
The French company said the 2MW Floatgen device, equipped with its floating foundation, produced a total of 2.2 gigawatt-hours and faced wave heights of up to 6.2 metres during the first half of 2019.
On 7 June, the turbine was operating during storm Miguel, which produced wave heights of 4.4 metres and wind speeds off 22 metres per second.
Average availability was over 90% in the second quarter, up from 68% in the first quarter. This will allow the machine to reach final targeted availability by the year-end.
The results are “fully in line” with the company’s initial simulation, it said.
Floatgen was installed at the Sem-Rev test site in the Atlantic in September 2018 and has since undergone a “progressive ramp-up”.
A second demo unit, installed off Japan in the same month, has also contributed to the device validation as it has faced three typhoons since going into the water, the company added.