The DemoSATH mooring, anchoring and quick connect solution will connect the first floating turbine to the Spanish grid, scheduled to be trialled later this year.
The project, led by Saitec Offshore Technologies in collaboration with RWE, has achieved a key milestone by completing the pre-lay of the mooring system.
“It is great to see that the DemoSATH project has completed the next step of the offshore works, with the mooring system now in place – an important milestone on our way to the installation and commissioning of the floating turbine later this year,” said Chris Willow, head of floating wind development at RWE Renewables.
”We as RWE see great potential for floating wind farms worldwide – especially to unlock opportunities in countries with deeper coastal waters.”
Landmark project
Maersk Supply Service undertook the installation of the six mooring lines and six anchors of DemoSATH at the BIMEP test site from the anchor-handling vessel Maersk Mariner.
The work comprised the installation of hybrid lines of chain and fibre rope and six drag anchors with Maersk Mariner. The mobilisation and loading of the mooring lines elements and preparation of the vessel was done at Punta Sollana quay, in the Port of Bilbao, where the onshore construction of the floater is currently under way.
These lines will be recovered from the seabed for a plug and play connection to the unit later this year.
“The installation of the SATH mooring lines worked perfectly. In the future, we will use them in all our commercial projects that are currently in the planning stage. The operations have been a great success since the earliest stage of design and the execution has been outstanding,” said Araceli Martínez, chief of engineering at Saitec Offshore Technologies.
Meanwhile, the onshore construction of the prestressed concrete floating platform continues at the Port of Bilbao. Works on the transition piece, single point mooring and boat landing are also carried out as well as installation works inside the floaters. This will be followed by the launching operation to put afloat the platform that will be then transported to its final deployment site at BIMEP.
The DemoSATH means a stepping stone in the SATH Technology commercialisation roadmap. The 2MW unit will be tested against real sea operating conditions in a harsh Atlantic environment. The test field at BiMEP facilities are two miles off the Biscay coast, where the sea is 85 metres deep.
This project aims to collect data and gain real-life knowledge from the construction procedure, operation and maintenance of DemoSATH floating wind platform for a period of two years.
DemoSATH will generate sufficient electricity to cover the energy demand of more than 2,000 local households.
