Floating wind industry leader, Principle Power, has expanded its WindFloat® product portfolio to two fully industrialised products: the existing WindFloat tubular design – now called WindFloat T – and the new flat panel, pontoon-based solution, known as the WindFloat F.
Leveraging 12 years of operational experience, both WindFloat products are market ready, suitable for the next generation of offshore wind turbines, and will play an integral role in the company’s wider industrialisation vision for floating wind.
“This is a major milestone in the history of Principle Power. We have taken the bankable, proven, and reliable WindFloat tubular design and leveraged many of its characteristics to develop a patented new design, the WindFloat F,” said Principle Power CEO, Julian Arrillaga Costa. “Whether it’s the WindFloat T or the new WindFloat F, we will work with customers to select the right WindFloat for their projects.”
The launch of the WindFloat F comes as Principle Power spurs the floating wind industry toward global expansion, where gigawatt scale projects in diverse geographies place new demands on the supply chain, including more restrictive port infrastructure, the need for serial production, and a need for greater flexibility to incorporate local supply chains into project execution plans.
More specifically, the WindFloat F is designed for ultra-shallow wind turbine integration in ports as shallow as 9 m. The additional buoyancy of the pontoons also minimises column diameter and footprint, creating more options within supply chains.
Combining flat panel architecture, widely used in shipbuilding and oil and gas, with proven technology from the WindFloat T, the new design includes the same three-column architecture and an improved hull trim system. The WindFloat F offers project developers a standardised, robust, and simple design that allows for automated subcomponent manufacturing at existing Tier 1 and Tier 2 fabrication facilities.
“We’ve taken proven flat panel architecture, the 550 GWh WindFloat operational track record, and our state-of-the-art numerical models, and extended all of it to the WindFloat F,” added Principle Power Vice President of Technology, Seth Price. “This means we can offer project developers patented products that are bankable from the beginning.”
The expanding WindFloat product portfolio will play a key role in Principle Power’s industrialisation vision, called ‘300x30’ – the company’s global strategy to enable the delivery of 300 floating wind turbines by 2030, propelling the industry into the gigawatt scale era.
“Taking our two WindFloat products into the ‘300x30’ industrialisation programme streamlines fabrication and accelerates assembly in a way that accommodates local supply chains around the world,” commented Principle Power Chief Commercial Officer, Aaron Smith. “The new product portfolio, together with our industrialisation strategy, is an entirely new way of thinking about efficiency and scale. It’s our vision for a planet powered by floating wind.”
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