Principle Power, provider of floating foundation solutions for the floating wind industry, has unveiled two new semisubmersible floating wind foundation designs - WindFloat TC and WindFloat FC.
The new designs, WindFloat TC (tubular, center column) and WindFloat FC (flat-panel, center column), are natural evolutions of the existing WindFloat technologies that support a wind turbine located on a column in the center of the platform.
Designed to complement the existing perimeter column designs – WindFloat T and WindFloat F – the new solutions share the same fourth generation design heritage and benefits.
Some of these include Smart Hull Trim system to maximize annual energy production and reduce loads, fatigue-resilient architecture optimized for large wind turbines, compact footprint and shallow wind turbine integration draft for maximum compatibility with infrastructure, and modular ‘block’ subcomponent philosophy for high flexibility and compatibility with existing supply chains.
“The outlook for floating wind is strong and as the market enters a ‘commercial’ era, wind turbine suppliers are now thinking about how to position their products for maximum standardization across the floating pipeline. With this in mind, we’ve developed WindFloat center column designs that are optimized for 15MW+ turbines with stiffer towers.”
“By expanding the WindFloat portfolio with these designs, we’re demonstrating how we can apply our proven expertise in floating wind with our known and de-risked technical features to achieve center column geometries that are bankable and immediately ready for commercial scale projects,” said Julian Arrillaga Costa, Chief Executive Officer.