PivotBuoy project, developed by X1 Wind with industry and academia, has gathered offshore demonstration results that enhance prospects for the platform’s deployment in commercial floating wind schemes.
The Spanish company’s X30 platform was tested in full operational conditions at the Spanish test site, PLOCAN, from October 2022 to May 2023.
During the seven-month demonstration, the device became the world’s first fully functional floating wind Tension Leg Platform (TLP). The unit fed its electricity to PLOCAN’s Platform via a 1.4km 20kV subsea cable.
X1 Wind CEO Alex Raventos said that the recently published results illustrate performance across a broad range of parameters including platform stability, passive alignment, structural behaviour and power production.
“The PivotBuoy Project marked an important phase in the development of our innovative technology,” he said.
“It allowed us to retrieve large amounts of data for a sustained period of time in full operational conditions.
“This data was collected from multiple sensors installed across the platform through a dedicated and proprietary SCADA called Floating Management System.
“These findings have provided crucial insights which are now being incorporated into X1 Wind’s ongoing commercial-scale projects, including the NextFloat Project.”
The data revealed the platform showed better alignment than publicly available data for traditional active yaw systems for strong winds (>7.5m/s) and similar alignment for lower wind speeds (<7.5m/s).
In addition, the platform overcame several harsh storms, with maximum wave heights reaching 6.7 metres, equivalent to more than 20 metres in full-scale.
During these extreme events, the unit behaved well with motions and accelerations matching the predictions in simulation models.
Raventos added that the decommissioning process, which was a requirement after the end of the EU funded project in March 2023, also proved the ease of disconnection of its innovative single point mooring system, successfully completing the disconnection, unhook and towing in less than one working day.
“By proving that our PivotBuoy mooring system can be easily hooked and unhooked we’ve shown that TLPs can easily be installed, decommissioned or maintained at port in case a tow-to-port maintenance operation is needed.”
The X30 platform was towed to Arinaga Port for its full decommissioning, removing the key elements for further analysis and offering some parts to the Instituto Técnológico de Canarias (ITC) for educational purposes at its facilities in Pozo Izquierdo.