Four new research and innovation projects

Offshore Wind – France Energies Marines launches four new research and innovation projects to support the acceleration of the sector

On July 10, the Board of Directors of France Energies Marines approved the launch, in the fall of 2024, of a program of four new R&D projects bringing together an ecosystem of 38 private and public partners. The total investment amounts to €9.5 million, of which just over €6 million is directly managed by the Institute. This significant investment confirms the strong support of France Energies Marines’ members, the French state, and local authorities for a collaborative approach to research, innovation, and risk-sharing in support of the sector’s development. The Institute’s locations, close to the various maritime façades, allow local authorities to fully participate in this dynamic.

Read the press release issued on 27/11/2024

The topics associated with these four new projects result from the programming work carried out with the industrial members of France Energies Marines. The selected subjects are fully connected to the current challenges of the offshore wind sector in France and are detailed below.

• DIMPACT+ aims to better account for extreme and breaking waves in the design of offshore wind turbines. The goal is to improve estimates of loads caused by nonlinear waves in shallow waters in coupled numerical models while evolving international standards. DIMPACT+ follows two previous projects: DIME (2017-2021) and DIMPACT (2020-2023).
• STORM aims to develop a tool for evaluating the reliability and optimising the maintainability of a floating wind farm, which will then be tested on real case studies. This project builds on the results of MOSISS (2020-2023), which developed a methodology for evaluating the reliability of a floating electrical substation. It will also rely on results from FLOWTOM (2021-2024) regarding the evaluation of the operability of major component replacement solutions at sea.
• FISHOWF+ will characterize the effect of offshore wind farms on fish by tracking the movements of several species within and between the farms using acoustic telemetry. It will use the acoustic telemetry network deployed as part of the FISHOWF project (2021-2024), which demonstrated the relevance of this tool for filling key knowledge gaps on fish occupancy patterns in an offshore wind context.
• FISHOREMAN aims to improve the representation of fisheries in models used to represent the ecosystem and simulate the cumulative impacts associated with offshore wind farms. By integrating socio-economic and cultural dimensions, the project will better assess the vulnerability of all fishing fleets to the development of offshore wind and simulate cumulative impacts under different scenarios of maritime space co-use.

A fifth project, named FARWAKES, is currently in preparation. It will address the characterization of long-distance wakes of offshore wind turbines and interactions between farms: a first for the Institute on this topic.

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