Project description
Technology for the floating offshore wind farm of the future
Floating offshore wind (FOW) farms are increasingly used for the production of renewable energy. Despite an advanced level of technological maturity, there is still enormous potential for improvements in this sector. The EU-funded FLOATFARM project aims to advance the maturity and competitiveness of FOW technology. It will increase energy production, reduce cost of energy, improve the offshore wind value chain and support a number of EU companies. FLOATFARM also intends to minimise negative environmental impacts on marine life while enhancing public acceptance, thereby accelerating the EU’s energy transition. It will explore new rotor designs for better energy capture using an innovative co-design approach. It will also look into improved floaters, a groundbreaking generator concept, turbine aerodynamic interaction, shared mooring and anchoring, and innovative dynamic cabling.
Objective
FLOATFARM aims to significantly advance the maturity and competitiveness of floating offshore wind (FOW) technology by increasing energy production, achieving significant cost reductions within the design and implementation phases, improving offshore wind value chain and supporting EU companies in this growing sector. Ultimately, FLOATFARM aims to decrease negative environmental impacts on marine life and to enhance the public acceptability of FOW, thereby accelerating the EU energy transition.
To this end, a number of critical technologies have been identified as key catalysts. They apply to different conceptual scales, from individual floating offshore wind turbine level (Action 1) to farm level (Action 2) and environmental and socio-economic perspectives (Action 3). Innovations will be introduced into: 1) ROTOR TECHNOLOGY, where innovative rotor designs for improved energy capture will be explored in a co-design approach with innovative control techniques, improved floaters, and a groundbreaking generator concept; 2) MOORING AND ANCHORING, where shared mooring and innovative dynamic cabling will be investigated; 3) WIND FARM CONTROL, where novel control strategies will be exploited to increase the farm power density, and 4) ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT MITIGATION, where marine noise emissions and impacts on marine species of FOW farms will be addressed, innovative artificial reefs will be pioneered and social acceptance will be studied.
To ensure that effective solutions are pursued and TRL5 can be achieved, FLOATFARM adopts a holistic approach that combines innovative designs, experimental demonstration at laboratory scale, modelling with a suite of beyond state-of-the-art numerical tools, and demonstration in a unique open-sea laboratory, where a new 1:7 scale 15MW FOWT will be tested in combination with novel floaters, moorings and controls, ensuring systematic assessment and validation that are thus far unprecedented in FOWT research.
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Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
10623 Berlin
Germany