France – The European Commission has chosen Technip Energies, X1 Wind, and a group of 10 top international organizations to carry out the NextFloat project, an ambitious initiative to advance commercial floating wind.
The primary goals of the NextFloat project are to demonstrate a cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and integrated floating offshore wind solution that is tailored for deep waters and to hasten the deployment of floating offshore wind at an industrial scale.
The integrated solution depends on the ground-breaking floating offshore wind technology from X1 Wind, which enables a lighter floater design, less steel usage, a more effective and compact mooring system, and ultimately reduces the impact on the seabed.
Prototype deployment
In order to demonstrate the concept in use, a full-scale 6MW prototype will be deployed at the Mistral test site in the French Mediterranean Sea as part of the project. It is made possible by the involvement of the Open-C foundation, which established and manages all of France’s offshore wind power and marine renewable energy test sites. Thus, the manufacturing, assembly, and installation processes for the integrated system design will be tested at a scale appropriate for the upcoming commercial offshore wind farms, which will need industrialized solutions for applications of 15 MW and higher.
The consortium also includes Naturgy, 2B-Energy, Hellenic Cables, Ocean Ecostructures, Schwartz Hautmont, Tersan Shipyard, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Ocas, Hydro, and the Technical University of Denmark in addition to Technip Energies and X1 Wind. The project is anticipated to begin in the fourth quarter of 2022, and the grant agreement is currently being negotiated with the European Commission.
