Windbarge - Low-cost floating wind energy production - Design, consortium and prototype development

The project will support the development and commercialization of the WindBarge offshore wind floater. This will allow for significantly improved utilization of existing bottom fixed offshore wind farm areas and their coherent infrastructure. Thus, WindBarge will have the potential of creating green jobs with both a domestic and strong international potential for scaling and competitiveness. The floater will enable utilization of offshore wind turbines with up to 15 MW capacity in water depths from 40 to 100 meters, anchored with a single line mooring system. These depths represent areas with immense energy potential in the shores surrounding Europe, USA, parts of Asia in addition to the new Norwegian area: Southern North Sea II. A strong consortium of developers governing the whole value chain for the floater is already established with a sufficient knowledge basis for development and verification of the pre- and basic design phase including fabrication. The companies in the consortium are GFMS as lead with Norconsult (Kjeller Vindteknikk), Fosen Yard, NOV/APL, Deep Sea Mooring/Vryhof and CDF Marine. The consortium is aiming for further growth with an EPCI contractor and a demonstrator operating company. This to ensure increased capabilities within planning of the demonstrator site selection, installation and decommissioning of the demonstration turbine. SINTEF Ocean is the preferred research partner and will optionally be extended with NTNU, IFE and UIS. The primary objective reflects the need for a rapid technology readiness increase going through basic design and model testing with the final goal of preparing for full-scale prototyping. Secondary objectives will be implemented through decision gates goals with specific acceptance criteria for each discipline to prepare for design realization of the prototype. A third-party company will be included early in the development phase. A technology qualification scheme will be established to reduce design risks.