New Floating Wind R&D Project Launches in France

July 5, 2024, by Adrijana Buljan

A research and development (R&D) project focused on reusable floating wind anchoring systems, high and low connectors, and tendons for tension line systems, has been launched in France. The project is led by Technip Energies in partnership with Université Gustave Eiffel, Valeco, and OPEN-C Foundation, and funded by the French State as part of France 2030 operated by ADEME.

The project, called PAREF, aims to design, fabricate, and test a reusable anchoring system, high and low connectors, and tendons while minimising the impact on the marine environment, with an ultimate goal of accelerating industrial-scale development of floating wind.

The PAREF project will provide the anchoring system for the NextFloat project for whose delivery Technip Energies, X1 Wind and a consortium of ten international partners were chosen by the European Commission in 2022.

NextFloat involves deploying a 6 MW offshore wind turbine prototype comprising X1 Wind’s floating technology and a compact mooring system that minimises seabed impact. The prototype will be installed at a test site in the Mediterranean Sea offshore France for operation in open-sea conditions.

The NextFloat platform will provide the means for an in situ test of the system developed by the PAREF consortium for a minimum of two years, the consortium says.

The 6 MW floating wind prototype at the Mistral test site in France is planned to demonstrate an integrated downwind floating platform design at a relevant scale, while simultaneously advancing the scaling up of the integrated solution to up to 20+ MW scale, in preparation of commercial floating wind farms under development in Europe.

Last year, X1 Wind’s X90 6 MW pre-commercial floating wind platform was granted the Statement of Feasibility from the classification society DNV.