Context

The total installed offshore wind capacity in the EU in 2023 was 18 GW. Most of the expected dramatic increase in capacity will come from bottom-fixed offshore wind but its requirement of having depths below 60 meters – very specific to certain locations such as the continental shelf of the North Sea – means that the floating wind alternative will be necessary to achieving current goals of the EU. In particular, floating wind is predominant in the southern sea basins with little or no capacity of offshore wind installed up until now. Floating wind energy is also a key technology for the outermost regions, many of them currently depending on carbon dioxide emitting and expensive energy sources, as room is limited for a significant solar or onshore wind deployment. So, there is a need for the creation of a European innovation ecosystem that will answer the current bottlenecks of the floating wind sector, therefore boosting the European economy through green technology and creating a sustainable industry. To address these challenges, the I3FLOAT initiative is supporting innovation in floating wind technologies.

Objectives

To develop a southern interregional value chain to consolidate European leadership in floating wind and accelerate innovation time-to-market

Expected results

• Detailed business and exploitation plans (including intelligence property aspects) for 9 key innovations:
  • Behavioural and health state forecasting model
  • Fiber-reinforce concrete
  • Inter-array cable system
  • Optimisation of logistics processes
  • Automated manufacturing process
  • Industrialisation of supply chain
  • Mooring systems for complex seabed and parametric design approach
  • Component level full lifecycle health monitoring
  • Comprehensive multilevel underwater structures monitoring
• Floating wind roadmap: key policy document to strengthen the European floating wind value chain, therefore having a spillover effect over the European companies dedicated to this sector and its related technologies and into academia that will be working in future emerging research on this area

Work planned

1. Interregional innovation floating wind investment projects
   • SATH Technology
   • Eolink Technology
   • Moray Base Technology
   • W2Power Floater Technology
   • Coordination of interregional innovation investments
2. Future roadmap and open call management
   • Roadmap definition
   • Innovation support scheme design
   • Open call management
   • Implementation and monitoring of successful projects
3. Open advisory support services
   • Networking and scale-up support
   • Financial support services
   • Valorisation advisory services

France Energies Marines’ contribution

As part of the I3FLOAT initiative, which is supporting innovation in floating wind technologies, France Energies Marines will implement and validate its digital twin solution on the DemoSATH platform, and more specifically:

• Qualifying the accuracy of numerical simulations by comparing them with field measurements
• Improving the understanding of Single Point Mooring (SPM) behavior under misaligned and complex environmental loads
• Calibrating the aero-servo-hydro-elastic models using in-situ sensor data
• Developing and validating the behavioral and health state forecasting model in close collaboration with the platform operator.

These efforts will contribute to advancing predictive maintenance strategies and enhancing the reliability and efficiency of floating wind technologies.

Partners and funding

This project is led by BASQUENERGY Cluster.

The total project budget is €11,030K.

I3FLOAT has been selected for the I3-2024-INV1 call and is co-financed by the European Union through the European Innovation Council and SME Executive Agency (EISMEA). It benefits from additional French State funding managed by the National Research Agency under the France 2030 investment plan. 

Photo credit: Yohann Boutin