EU Funds New Offshore Wind Project

EDP has been granted European funding to develop new technology for offshore wind power.

DEMOGRAVI3 is a project that aims to develop an innovative gravity based foundation for offshore wind turbines and will be funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme. The project will last for four years and will include a full-scale demonstration in a real-life environment off Aguçadoura, Póvoa de Varzim, in northern Portugal.

The consortium developing this new project will be coordinated by EDP, through EDPR.

DEMOGRAVI3 will test a wind turbine with an gravitational foundation made of concrete and steel. The turbine will be installed on the Aguçadoura Offshore Wind Demonstration Farm, about 6km off the Portuguese coast, taking advantage of the underwater cable connecting the WindFloat turbine to a substation on land, which will be decommissioned meanwhile to make way for Phase 2 of the project, to be installed in Viana do Castelo.

Unlike the solution based on a floating platform successfully tested with Windfloat, DEMOGRAVI3 will be installed on the seabed, although it will already be assembled and floated to the mooring place. The whole structure of the turbine and its constituent elements will be assembled on shore and then transported. The main innovation of this structure thus avoids the necessity for heavy lift vessels to anchor and assemble all the turbine components in an offshore environment, EDP said.

The total budget for the project amounts to €26.8m, and non-reimbursable financing of €19.2m has been obtained from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Programme to support the Research & Innovation.

Image: EDP