Bureau Veritas has issued a Design Evaluation Conformity Statement to Eolink for its 5 MW pre-commercial floating wind turbine platform to be installed at the SEM-REV test site in France.
According to the floating wind technology developer, this certification is a requirement for the final investment decision of its pre-commercial floating wind turbine.
The certification company evaluated the floating structure, its single point station keeping system, and the primary and secondary steel. The certification also covers the impact of transportation and installation on the design.
The scope of the evaluation included the design basis and design evaluation, with an assessment of the integrated load analysis methodology. The assessment has been made against BV NI572, which provides specific guidance and recommendations for the classification and certification of floating offshore wind turbines, Eolink said.
Eolink’s floating wind concept replaces a single wind turbine tower with a set of thin and profiled arms. According to the company, having a turbine mounted on a single tower induces vibrations and bending moment at the base, and with floating application this tower is no longer mandatory.
The French company gained access to testing at the SEM-REV site in 2020, after being recommended for support packages under the second call of Ocean DEMO, a EUR 13 million Interreg-funded project which allows companies to receive free access to test its technology in real sea environments .
The developer is expected to soon deploy its 5 MW demonstration turbine, which corresponds to a 2/3 scale of the 15 MW commercial units, during 2022.
Eolink completed offshore trials of a 1/10 scale floating wind turbine prototype in the summer of 2019, after the unit was tested at sea for over a year.
Last year, the floating wind technology developer and Dutch robotics company Kranendonk revealed they were looking into setting up a gigafactory for automated production of floating wind foundations.
Eolink said it had slightly adapted its detailed design to be fully compatible with automated welding robots which would be used in Kranendonk production line.