Members Only: Headlines from FWP Atlantic Forum in Brest

The FWP Atlantic Forum held last week in Brest, France has a regional focus and this year’s edition was strictly on Floating Wind Energy. For those who missed it, the following are some of the noteworthy topics.

The Portuguese Ministry of Sea is looking at using floating wind to power the islands of Madeira and the Azores.
‎It was also said they assume WindFloat Atlantic comes in at €3.5M/MW. Assumed they refer to the project’s commercial stage (estimated by Q FWE at $3.8M/MW), it would be in the very low range of FWE projects’ Cost per MW that will be revealed in a new Q Vision tool shortly.
Principle Power hinted at announcing a new Hawaiian partner, a ‘key player’, in the Progression project. The capacity stated is 650MW (instead of earlier reported 400MW). Based on this Quest FWE upgrades the project from possible to ‘planned’ despite BOEM is still in the process of identifying suitable areas.
WPD Offshore France announced their bond with the Brittany region with a view of future floating wind developments offshore Brittany.
Eolfi demonstrated their vast experience in Taiwan and the resulting in-depth knowledge of developing offshore wind in Taiwan. With 60% of the waters deeper than 50meters this is a very promising area for which the company finds strong support from all stakeholders in the country.
Saipem introduced an EPCI approach towards floating wind opting for serial construction of floaters in their Indonesian yard and transport from there worldwide. They anticipate to deliver one floater per week.
Equinor announced to look at floating technology in France combining with their gas interests they have.
Equinor also confirmed their floaters for Hywind Tampen to be constructed in concrete and the sharing of anchor points between the floaters, 3 lines on one anchor point.
EoLink revealed their mooring system for their semisubmersible floater. It consist of a patented externally moored SPM, holding the floater downwind by means of two hawsers.