ABS classification has been awarded to an offshore windfarm for the first time.
WindFloat Atlantic’s three 8.4MW floating turbines have been accepted by the ABS Class Committee. The SEMI Submersible Type units are designed by Principle Power and housing MHI Vestas turbines to make a total of 25MW of floating offshore wind power.
Ocean Winds is the majority shareholder of WindFloat Atlantic, 20km off the coast of Viana do Castello, Portugal and continental Europe’s first larger scale floating wind farm.
“The WindFloat Atlantic project is again showing its technology reliability. Having achieved formal ABS classification for the three floating platforms is therefore an important milestone for the project shareholders and also for the offshore floating wind industry,” said Jose Pinheiro, Ocean Winds Southern Europe BU country manager.
“It’s a historic first and, we believe, the first of many more to come,” said Matt Tremblay, ABS senior vice president, global offshore. “ABS has made a significant contribution both to this project and the development of offshore floating wind in Portugal. It underscores the potential of Class and industry working together for the safe adoption of new technologies.”
The WindFloat Atlantic project is developed by the Windplus consortium, which is jointly owned by Ocean Winds (50:50 JV owned and created by EDP Renewables and ENGIE), Repsol, and Principle Power Inc.
ABS is the leading classification organisation for floating offshore wind and continues to lead the development of design standards and concepts for floating offshore wind turbine foundations. ABS certified the first commercial-sized semisubmersible floating offshore wind turbine and released the ABS Guide for Building and Classing Floating Offshore Wind Installations in 2013.
By Rebecca Jeffrey
