Wood to Assess Platform Designs for Irish Floating Wind Project

Consulting and engineering company Wood has been awarded a pre-FEED (front-end engineering design) contract by Simply Blue Energy for a proposed floating offshore wind farm located off the west coast of Ireland.

The Western Star Floating Offshore Wind project aims to harness the wind power of the Atlantic Ocean to produce energy for Ireland and beyond.

Also known as Project Ilen, this 1.1 GW floating offshore wind project will be located at least 35 kilometres off County Clare.

”We are delighted to be working with Simply Blue Energy on the milestone Western Star Floating Offshore Wind energy project,” Andy Hemingway, President of Energy, Innovation & Optimisation at Wood, said.

”As an emerging technology, floating wind farms could supercharge the world’s renewable energy capacity and will be an important part of the global energy transition. Investing in this technology of the future will help Ireland reach its targets on greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate change.”

Wood’s team will assess the suitability of multiple floating platform designs against the site-specific criteria.

By taking a lifecycle approach to costs incorporating capital expenditure, construction costs, and operational costs, the team will develop a solution that enables the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) to be identified, Wood said.

Simply Blue Energy’s Western Star floating offshore wind farm is being developed in parallel with the company’s Saoirse wave energy conversion array, both employing innovative and cutting-edge technologies to produce zero-carbon electricity.

Apart from the Western Star, Simply Blue Group is part of Blue Gem Wind, a joint venture with energy giant Total which is currently developing the 96 MW Erebus floating offshore wind project.

Simply Blue is also developing the Emerald floating wind project off the south coast of Ireland in partnership with Shell.