Maritime and offshore classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has classed the 25MW WindFloat Atlantic floating offshore wind farm in Portugal, making it the world’s first classed offshore wind farm of the type.
The floating wind farm off the coast of Portugal consists of three MHI Vestas 8.4MW wind turbines installed on submersible type bases designed by Principle Power.
WindFloat Atlantic, of which Ocean Winds is the majority shareholder, has been described as continental Europe’s first larger-scale floating wind farm, 20 kilometers off the coast of Viana do Castello, Portugal.
Matt Tremblay, ABS Senior Vice President, Global Offshore said:"It’s a historic first and, we believe, the first of many more to come. ABS has made a significant contribution both to this project and the development of offshore floating wind in Portugal.
"It underscores the potential of Class and industry working together for the safe adoption of new technologies. ABS has supported innovation in offshore energy since 1958. This landmark project underlines how we continue to support promising offshore technology more than 60 years later.”
"The WindFloat Atlantic project is again showing its technology reliability. Having achieved formal ABS classification for the three floating platforms is, therefore, an important milestone for the project shareholders and also for the offshore floating wind industry,” said Jose Pinheiro, Ocean Winds Southern Europe BU Country Manager.
The WindFloat Atlantic project is developed by the Windplus consortium, which is jointly owned by Ocean Winds (50:50 JV owned and created by EDP Renewables and ENGIE), Repsol, and Principle Power Inc.
Unlike traditional bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines, floating offshore wind farms are not subject to the same depth restrictions and can be deployed at any depth.
"With the development of larger turbines above 10 MWs and research focused on shallow water moorings, the floating technology may even be an alternative to traditional bottom-founded technologies in intermediate water depths in the future," ABS said.