Red Tape Pushes Gicon SOF Installation to 2017

German engineering consultancy Gicon will postpone the installation of the full scale demonstrator of its floating offshore foundation, the Gicon SOF, in the Baltic Sea to 2017 due to ”procedural challenges”.

The Gicon SOF is a tension leg platform developed by Gicon and ESG GmbH in co-operation with the University of Rostock and the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg.

Following simulations and tank tests, ESG GmbH, a member of the Gicon Group of companies, started fabrication of a full scale demonstrator for use with a 2MW class turbine.

Gicon says that the delay is not due to technical or fabrication issues and that although the project is classified as a research project, the existing legal framework required ESG GmbH to request grid connection capacity following the application procedures required by commercial wind farm operators.

”This resulted in unanticipated delays and therefore a loss of about 50 % of the total funding because the required timeline could, however, not be achieved,” Gicon said.

Gicon and ESG are currently working on closing the funding gap in order to install a full scale demonstrator in 2017.

The installation of the full scale demonstrator was initially planned for 2016. Analysis by an independent 3rd party shows that Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of less than EUR 0.09/kWh can be achieved using the SOF TLP technology for offshore wind farms, according to Gicon.

“Even though that we had to postpone the construction of our full scale demonstrator for 2016, we are on a very positive way with the project. We are using the additional time for further improvements and cost reductions of the GICON SOF which will lead to an ever lower LCOE for offshore wind. We are looking forward to 2017,” Gicon’s founder, Prof. Dr. Jochen Grossmann, said.