Principle Power, a provider of floating foundation solutions for the floating wind industry, said Tuesday it had expanded its WindFloat product portfolio to two fully industrialized products: the existing WindFloat tubular design – now called WindFloat T – and the new flat panel, pontoon-based solution, known as the WindFloat F.
Principle Power said both WindFloat products were market-ready, suitable for the next generation of offshore wind turbines, and would play an integral role in the company’s wider industrialization 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.”
Ultra-shallow water
The WindFloat F is designed for ultra-shallow wind turbine integration in ports as shallow as 9 meters. The additional buoyancy of the pontoons also minimizes column diameter and footprint, creating more options within supply chains.
"Combining flat panel architecture, widely used in shipbuilding and oil & gas, with proven technology from the WindFloat T, the new design includes the same 3-column architecture and an improved hull trim system. The WindFloat F offers project developers a standardized, robust, and simple design that allows for automated subcomponent manufacturing at existing Tier 1 and Tier 2 fabrication facilities," Principle Power said.
"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,” said Principle Power Vice President of Technology, Seth Price. “This means we can offer project developers patented products that are bankable from the beginning.”
300 floating wind turbines by 2030
The company said that the expanding WindFloat product portfolio will play a key role in Principle Power’s industrialization 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’ industrialization program streamlines fabrication and accelerates assembly in a way that accommodates local supply chains around the world,” said Principle Power Chief Commercial Officer, Aaron Smith. “The new product portfolio, together with our industrialization strategy, is an entirely new way of thinking about efficiency and scale. It’s our vision for a planet powered by floating wind.”
"With 75 MW of capacity in operation and 30 MW currently under construction, Principle Power is the market leader in floating wind technology. The company has secured exclusivity to supply WindFloat technology to commercial-scale projects totaling 10 GW of projects under design contact and is supporting customers to deliver a multi-GW portfolio of cost-competitive floating wind projects worldwide," Principle Power said.