A consortium of thirteen partners has launched the NextFloat project in Paris aimed at accelerating the rollout of the next generation of floating wind technology for a competitive, more scalable, and industrial deployment.

The initiative is being led by partners from eight countries including Technip Energies as project coordinator, X1Wind, Naturgy, 2B Energy, Hellenic Cables, Technical University of Denmark, Hydro, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Schwartz Hautmont, Ocas, Tersan Shipyard, Ocean Ecostructures, and Cybernetix. The project is set to be led by France’s Technip Energies and is due to run until 2027. 

Backed by €16m of EU Horizon funding, the NextFloat Project will see a 6MW floating wind platform developed by the partners and deployed at the Mistral test site in the French Mediterranean. In parallel, the project will also see the consortium develop a scaled up 20MW+ model based on feedback from prototype testing, with the larger platform designed to be rolled out on a commercial scale across Europe and beyond.

Design work for the initial 6MW system is currently underway and scheduled to be finalised in 2023. Construction of the prototype is due in 2023 and 2024, ahead of installation at the Mistral site in 2025.

Source: The Engineer