France – Lundi 21/08/2017 – energiesdelamer.eu – The successful offshore installation of Floatgen’s innovative mooring system paves the way for the installation of France’s first offshore wind turbine.
The mooring system components were assembled and installed on the SEM-REV test site which will host Floatgen, 22 kilometers off the coast of Le Croisic in western France. This highly innovative system was conceived and engineered by Ideol. It is composed of 6 nylon mooring lines, a worldwide premiere for a permanent mooring system of such dimensions.
This installation took place as the construction of the concrete floating foundation built by Bouygues Travaux Publics in Saint-Nazaire is coming to an end. Once equipped with the wind turbine, the complete unit is expected to be tugged before the end of the year towards SEM-REV, the world’s 1st multiple MRE technology test site connected to the grid.
Significant resources, including an Anchor Handling Tug Supply (AHTS) vessel with a WROV, were required for the installation conditioned by high tensions, Bourbon stated.
“One of the FLOATGEN project challenges was to install an innovative mooring system that needs to meet the production conditions criteria of the floating wind turbine. This demonstrates the value of an experimental site to test innovative technological developments, their implementation and project management when in production. Competent and dedicated teams from BOURBON, Ideol and Centrale Nantes have highly contributed to the success of the operation”, said Christian Berhault, Head of SEM-REV at Centrale Nantes.
Destined to equip other MRE systems, the mooring system designed by Ideol must satisfy two sometimes contradictory requirements:
– a cost-competitive manufacturing and installation enabling the production of electricity at the lowest possible cost
– the weathering of extreme environmental conditions such as high swell, biofooling, storms… The engineering teams will monitor this innovative system during the entire project’s lifetime whilst several R&D projects are already underway to analyze and perhaps even improve this pioneering mooring system’s performance.
Points de repère
3/05/2017 – « Quotidienne » energiesdelamer.eu. BOURBON a annoncé la signature d’un contrat portant sur l’installation du système d’ancrage de l’éolienne flottante dans le cadre du projet européen FLOATGEN*. Cette éolienne qui sera installée sur le site d’essais SEM-REV opéré par l’Ecole Centrale de Nantes (ECN).
Floatgen
The project began in 2013 bringing together seven partners each with a specific role to play: Ideol: design and provision of the entire floating system (foundation, anchoring system and electricity export cable) as well as the wind turbine; Centrale Nantes: ocean engineering expertise and access to its offshore test site; Bouygues Travaux Publics: floating foundation construction; RSK GROUP: environmental impact analysis; ZABALA project management;
FRAUNHOFER-IWES: comparative analysis of the different floating solutions. It is supported by the European Union as part of the FP7 programme, by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency as part of the national Investments for the Future Programme, and by the Pays de la Loire region.This project is a precursor to the installation in coming years of first pilot, then commercial, offshore wind farms. The University of Stuttgart: participation in the study phase simulations. Monitoring and testing of the operating systems in real open sea conditions, installation methods and processes, environmental impact, O&M cost validation, generating deep water offshore wind turbine know-how.
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