The 6MW floating wind NextFloat prototype has been launched in Paris.
It will be installed in the French Mediterranean to demonstrate at a relevant scale an innovative integrated downwind floating platform design.
The project hopes to advance in parallel the industrialisation and scaling-up of the integrated solution up to 20MW+ scale, in preparation of commercial floating wind farms under development in Europe.
The initiative is being led by a consortium of thirteen partners from eight countries including Technip Energies as project coordinator, X1Wind, Naturgy, 2B Energy, Hellenic Cables, Technical University of Denmark, Hydro, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Schwartz Hautmont, Ocas, Tersan Shipyard, Ocean Ecostructures and Cybernetix.
Backed by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme with public funding of €16m, plus private funding from partners and shareholders, the project is anticipated to run until 2027.
This project builds upon previous European Projects such as the PivotBuoy which recently led to the installation of a part-scale prototype in the Canary Islands to validate the technology.
Design work for the initial 6MW system is currently underway and scheduled to be finalized in 2023. Construction is due in 2023 and 2024, ahead of installation in 2025.
Laure Mandrou, SVP Carbon-Free Energy solutions of Technip Energies, said: “While the COP 27 just ended, we can only note that there is an urgent requirement for greater climate action and a swift transition to renewables energy.
“Floating wind is one of the lowest carbon electricity generation systems to meet the energy demand in a sustainable way while inducing better competitiveness, less noise and visual pollution, and less interaction with the users of the maritime domain.
“The NextFloat Project represents a unique opportunity to test a novel and disruptive version of this technology at full scale, driving cost curve reductions in order to deliver industrial-scale projects at the earliest possible stage.”