An Iberdrola led international consortium has launched the FLAGSHIP project to develop and fabricate the first 10+MW floating offshore wind turbine which will be installed off the coast of Norway writes Dag Pike.
FLAGSHIP is an Horizon 2020 project that aims to reduce the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) for floating offshore wind to the range 40‐60 EUR/MWh by 2030 which will bring it closer to the LCOE of fixed structure offshore wind turbines. Iberdrola has brought together an impressive number of companies for this project and the consortium also includes Core-Marine, Cener, IHC, Zabala Innovation Consulting, Olav Olsen, Kvaerner, Unitech Subsea, Metcentre, EDF, DTU, and DNV-GL.
According to the project’s schedule, the production of the floating platform could start in the third quarter of 2021 and its installation at sea is scheduled for the first quarter of 2022. The turbine will be supported by a floating semi‐submersible concrete structure which is based on Olav Olsen’s OO-Star Wind Floater concept. This structure comprises three vertical concrete pillars that are connected underwater to form a semi-submersible structure that provides a stable platform in waves.
Olav Weider from Olav Olsen commented, “After several years of development this is the significant breakthrough we have been looking forward to and are very proud of. It confirms our leading expertise in floating offshore wind and the great potential of our OO-Star Wind Floater as a robust and scalable solution for future offshore wind parks.”
The prototype is scheduled to be installed and commissioned at Metcentre outside Karmøy, Norway, by the end of 2022. This exposed site between Bergen and Stavanger is a dedicated floating wind test centre. Construction is scheduled to take two years and there will be a further two year period of testing.
This demonstration project will manage a €25 million funding during its four year’s duration. The project will focus on the testing of a cost-effective concrete floating platform and anchoring system for a 10+ MW wind turbine, including electrical connection in a demanding site location of the North Sea, in order to pave the way towards the mass production and installation in a worldwide range of commercial scenarios.