French-based engineering company Technip Energies and several partners will be undertaking a research and development program aimed at accelerating industrial-scale development of floating wind.
The company will be leading the so-called PAREF project in partnership with Université Gustave Eiffel, Valeco, and the OPEN-C Foundation.
This project is funded by the French State as part of France 2030 operated by ADEME – the French agency for ecological transition. It aims to design, fabricate, and test a reusable anchoring system, high and low connectors, and tendons for a tension line system, all while minimizing the impact on the marine environment in real offshore conditions.
PAREF will ultimately provide the anchoring system for the NextFloat project. In 2022, Technip Energies, X1 Wind, and a consortium of 10 international entities were chosen by the European Commission to deliver the NextFloat project.
The integrated system includes X1 Wind’s innovative and disruptive floating wind technology, featuring a lighter floater design with a reduced steel requirement, plus a compact mooring system minimizing seabed impact. The 6MW prototype will be deployed at a test site in the Mediterranean Sea to operate the concept in open-sea operational conditions.
“This project and partnership will help optimize anchor geometry and reduce mooring system costs, facilitating the large-scale deployment of innovative floating wind farm technologies,” said Christelle Abadie, research fellow at the Université Gustave Eiffel.
Technip Energies has already made strides in floating wind this year, especially with the creation of a floating offshore wind joint venture with Dutch floater expert SBM Offshore. The joint venture, named EkWiL, will be a floating wind pure play and will use the expertise of the two companies to create integrated floating solutions for the offshore wind market.
