MOU signed to install Italy’s largest OSW farm

The two firms will work together to deploy the technology at Italy’s largest offshore wind farm, Molise, in the Adriatic Sea.

Gazelle’s platform, the company says, includes a dynamic mooring system that eliminates pitch and balance movement in response to the external forces of wind, waves, and tide.

“The platform’s modular design allows for scalable and adaptable configurations, making it a more affordable and accessible solution for deep water deployment,” Gazelle says. “The modularity of the components enables the wind platform to be fabricated cost-effectively in shipyards and then transported to an assembly port, adjacent to a wind farm, to be completed.

“The Tugdock Submersible Platform provides a build-and-launch platform that overcomes port constraints. The structure combines a steel frame and patented airlift bags to act as additional buoyancy or as a submersible platform for lifting or launching heavy marine structures.”

“This collaboration will unlock great opportunities for both partners as well as help to accelerate the floating offshore wind industry,” said Lucas Lowe-Houghton, chief revenue officer at Tugdock.

Tugdock, which introduced its road-transportable floating dry dock known as the Tugdock Submersible Platform at Seawork in 2020, is rolling its technology out apace, in September signing a deal with a joint venture comprised of Simply Blue Group, Ørsted and Subsea7 to install offshore wind at Peterhead in northeast Scotland.

“While the Gazelle platform possesses a naturally low draft, there are significant benefits to assembling the modules on the Tugdock platform, which doubles as the assembly fixture and launch method, speeding up platform assembly and getting our platform into the water in a safe, and cost-effective way,” said Jon Salazar, CEO of Gazelle Wind Power. “This partnership is driving the production rates up and costs down.”

The Molise Offshore Wind Farm project is managed by Maverick Srl and controlled by Green Bridge, and will see 70 wind turbines installed with a generation capacity of 1.05GW. It is Italy’s largest offshore project in terms of installed capacity.

This project will cost €2.1 billion.