Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

LEADING THE FLOATING WIND MARKET DEVELOPMENT

Project description

Floating turbines could unlock the full potential of offshore wind energy

Offshore wind is a highly promising renewable energy source that could make a major contribution to European and global efforts to decarbonise the economy by 2050. Where bottom-fixed foundations can only be installed in shallow water depths of around 40 m, floating foundations allow access to deeper waters. Recognising that a great part of the ocean’s resource potential lies in deep waters, the EU-funded LEADFLOAT project is developing a floating offshore wind platform. The platform will be extremely compact and simple, and compatible with existing and future extra-large wind turbines. The consortium is also exploring the possibility of using concrete or steel for its construction.

Objective

Offshore wind has emerged as a highly effective, cost competitive and a key contributor to the European energy transition challenge.
Yet, current technologies limit offshore wind deployment to shallow water depth (less than 40m) restricting the market potential to a few countries (mainly the North Sea), while the vast majority and the best wind resources are located in deep waters. The installation of wind turbines on floating foundations inevitably appears as the future of offshore wind. Floating foundation solutions unleashes the market potential with no restriction on the water depth or on the seabed soil conditions, allowing developing projects further offshore where wind is stronger and the visual impact is limited.
IDEOL, a French SME created in 2010, has emerged as one of the few international leaders in floating wind, with two demonstrators built in France and Japan, relying on its patented floating platform technology, the most cost competitive solution in the market. Its team, composed by more than 40 engineers, is globally recognized as one of the best technical team with a unique know-how and innovative approach. IDEOL is already engaged in different pre-commercial and commercial projects in France, Japan and California. It is the only European technology provider and the only foreign company having convinced the Japanese government and experts.
Its technology is characterized by its extreme compactness and simplicity, its compatibility with the existing and the future extra-large wind turbines without modification, its construction either in concrete or in steel.
LEADFLOAT aims to impose IDEOL’s solution as the market leader of floating wind by keeping its cost competitiveness advantage, leveraging on its demonstrators’ return of experience and securing early market share in key markets. It will contribute to keep Europe ahead and to positions its industry on the top of the new emerging floating-wind market over the competition from US and Japan.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

IDEOL
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 498 562,50
Address
147 AV. DU JUJUBIER
13600 LA CIOTAT
France

See on map

SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Bouches-du-Rhône
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 3 569 375,00
My booklet 0 0