ArcWind project: Saitec Offshore seeks to boost floating wind energy in Atlantic Region.

Saitec Offshore Technologies is involved in an international project called ArcWind (Adaptation and Implementation of Floating Wind Energy Conversion Technology for the Atlantic Region), supported with EU funds from Interreg Atlantic Area program, aiming to drive the floating wind energy forward to become a major contributor of green energy in the Atlantic Area Countries.

ArcWind’s scope is to contribute to the transition from fixed to floating wind platform systems for use in deeper water and more exposed sites in the region, to derive a methodology for selecting locations for siting floating offshore wind farms as well as application cases in the Atlantic Area countries.

For this purpose, the following actions are being carried out:

• Assessment of wind energy potential in the Atlantic Region by complementing existing wind data with detailed information resulting from a regional atmospheric model and remote sensed data. A multicriteria approach for selecting the locations of the wind energy farms are developed and applied to the Atlantic region countries.

• The feasibility and appropriateness of having different types of floating wind turbines installed in the various locations considering the specific features of the sites and the main types of floating structures: barge, TLP and advanced spar type. High power turbine concepts and innovative control algorithms will be considered case studies will then be chosen for each country in which a specific concept of platform will be studied numerically and experimentally.

• Farms with these platforms will be considered for cost assessment, logistics and maintenance planning as well as risk assessment. Overall realistic assessments of the production, costs and economic feasibility will be produced.

• A 10 MW wind turbine with SATH Technology from Saitec has been recently tested at MaREI Center (University College of Cork) and its performance it’s going to be analyzed.

Àlex Morato, Saitec Offshore Technologies’ project manager for ArcWind, affirms: “This project is a great opportunity to test our technology for a 10MW turbine and prove the scalability and performance of the SATH platform. Besides, the project demonstrates the technical and economic feasibility of several locations in the Atlantic coast to install floating wind.”

The research is led by Instituto Superior Técnico Portugal and brings together leading companies from different countries: 
Portugal: Agência Regional da Energia e Ambiente da Região Autónoma da Madeira and Centro de Investigação em Energia REN-State Grid. Spain: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Centro Nacional de Energías Renovables, Universidade da Coruña, ESTEYCO and Vicinay Marine Innovación. France: Institut Français pour la Recherche et l’Exploitation de la MER and France Energies Marines. United Kigdom: Liverpool John Moores University, Mersey Maritime and European Marine Energy Centre. Ireland: University College Cork.