The AFLOWT project partners came together in Paris at the end of 2022 for a steering group meeting. The team have been working hard to accelerate the floating offshore wind industry in North West Europe. Much development continues on the AFLOWT project, a full-scale deployment of SAIPEM’s Hexafloat technology was hoped for, however this is no longer possible within the remaining 12 months. It will now occur after the project closes.
Febus Optics have now deployed several technologies on the EMEC site in Orkney (Scotland):
- a FEBUS A1: DAS (Distributed Acoustic Sensing) system to detect vibrations, Rayleigh technology
- a FEBUS G1: DTS (Distributed Temperature Sensing) as well as DSS (Distributed Strain Sensing) system to measure temperature variations and strain, Brillouin technology.
Their devices operated a month of complete monitoring on a static export cable but also on the dynamic cable linked to the electricity producing technology at the surface. These data will be used as a basis to define the fatigue to which the dynamic cables are submitted and improve the overall cable monitoring through its lifetime.
EMEC supported the geophysical survey operations at the Wave Hub test site off the coast of Cornwall with the survey work being completed in September this year.
IWES began this year with a focus on an “Active Supply Chain”. The supply chain analysis, covering the entire North-West Europe region and considering seven different commodity codes involved in floating offshore wind development is now completed. Based on this analysis, gaps can be identified and requirements deduced in the future.
Throughout the year 2022, the main focus was on “Technology Maturity and Investability” and “Favourable Policy Environment”. A survey on offshore test sites was distributed to more than 100 institutions and a two-day joint event together with the Interreg NWE project MEA (Marine Energy Alliance) was held. This innovation tour not only delivered presentation-based knowledge on offshore renewable technologies, but also included an onsite visit of the SEM-REV offshore test site with the installed FLOATGEN floating wind demonstrator and the nearby offshore wind farm under construction at Saint Nazaire.
MARIN have been focusing on mooring integrity management - We think mooring integrity management will present several challenges in the upscaling of FOW technology to farm level.
OPEN-C foundation status was signed by all 10 founders, around the same time the French CRE (Energy Regulatory Commission) validated the membership of both RTE (TSO) & EDF. The French ADEME validated the development of the foundation Tests Sites including Mistral, lead by OPEN-C.
Meanwhile, SEAI continues site development at AMETS in Co. Mayo, Ireland. The award of the Site Investigation licence that will enable us to complete outstanding survey work is imminent. Work is ongoing on the final Environmental Impact Assessment report – expected delivery date is late Q1 / early Q2 2023. The Invitation to Tender to procure a Project Engineering Management company for the building of the Substation will be issued in early January.
Finally, AFLOWT NEEDS YOU!
AFLOWT project partners would like to invite you to be part of the project by completing in our Floating Offshore Wind (FOW) surveys. We have two surveys prepared which are aimed at particular sectors within the FOW industry;
FOW Farm Developers - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MRXSVFG
FOW Technology Developers - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R6TMHGM
Please complete the survey which is applicable to you. As the FOW industry evolves, the purpose of these surveys is to accurately analyze the readiness of the technology and deployment. All data received will be used to create a FOW Development Plan which will detail key aspects that can accelerate market uptake. This document will be available in Q3 of 2023.
We encourage you to forward these surveys to your relevant contacts. The more responses we get the better our analysis of the FOW industry will be. We appreciate your time and involvement. The final date for completing the survey is 27th February 2023.
Thanks for your time, The AFLOWT Team.
