What is FLAGSHIP?

FLAGSHIP is a Horizon 2020 project that aims to reduce the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) for floating offshore wind to the range 40-60 €/MWh by 2030.

The initiative will develop and fabricate the first 10 MW Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT) assembled on a floating semi-submersible concrete structure in the Norwegian North Sea.

This demonstration project will manage a 25 million euros funding during its 4 years duration, aimed at optimizing floating offshore wind towards commercialization.

The initiative kicked off the 1st of September of 2020 and it will be coordinated by Iberdrola until its ending in 2024.

The project will build a robust and innovative semi-submersible concrete floating platform that includes an easy-to-install anchorage design, innovative mooring designs and configurations, as well as new cable designs with optimized installation and life management procedures.

To address these challenges, an international consortium has been created including companies and institutions form 5 different countries: Spain, Norway, France, Denmark and Germany.

This project is located in the harsh conditions of the North Sea and will be the starting point for large-scale of 500+MW future commercial FOW farms, ensuring its feasibility to other specific locations in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Baltic seas.

The asset will be installed at the Marine Energy Test Centre (MET), as the owner of the test site area located in the Norwegian North Sea, and the knowledge generated by FLAGSHIP and the results of the demonstrative scenarios will be crucial for the industrialisation of floating offshore wind farms all over the world.

Objectives

The main objective of the FLAGSHIP project is to validate and demonstrate an innovative cost-effective Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT) to ensure imminent LCOE reduction in the range 40-60€/MWh. This aim will be addressed with a set of specific goals:

Specific objectives

To demonstrate the first 10+ MW Floating Offshore Wind Turbine mounted on a floating substructure.

To design and build at 1:1 commercial scale a concrete semisubmersible substructure based on Olav Olsen’s patented and design protected OO-Star Wind Floater concept.

To prove the feasibility of a robust and versatile FOW solution for 10MW turbine scalable to 20 MW, suitable for different sea conditions and water depths.

To define and qualify a cost-effective concrete structure manufacturing process available for building on land, on barge or in a dry dock; fully adaptable to typical port facilities and logistics found in most countries worldwide.

To demonstrate cost effective installation methods without use of expensive offshore heavy lifts, being the offshore installation performed 100% by towing and use of ordinary moderate size vessels.

To provide a verified re-powering and lifetime extension strategy beyond 25 years, based on first digital twin system available for FOWT at different upscaled capacities under real operational environment and minimum 50-years lifetime concrete substructures.

To decrease LCOE by 30-50% instead of current average rate of 120 EUR/MWh in pre-commercial FOWT solutions.

To reduce the environmental impact of FOW solutions by reducing the carbon footprint of the construction of the concrete floating platform to 50% compared to a steel platform.

To increase social acceptance by contributing to reduce the cost of electricity and the socioeconomic impact of the offshore wind technologies.

To improve O&M and platform monitoring by the definition of an interactive holistic predictive model for preventive maintenance and efficient wind farm control to reduce wake effects for floating wind farms.

To estimate the impact of the climate change in those floating offshore wind farms to be installed and operate in the next 30 to 50 years.

Methodology

FLAGSHIP project will achieve its objectives based on the following principles:

  • Cost and environmentally effectiveness
  • Maintenance-free concept for floating platform and minimum O&M requirements for other components
  • Maximum efficiency and scalability potential proving a solution for a 10+ MW turbine, establishing the requirements for the scalability for 15-20 MW

The initiative’s methodology will be rolled-out in a 4-step process:

1- To adapt the design of the OO’s validated concept of the floating platform as the starting point of the overall design.

2- To start activities to move from one single unit to wind farm scale, in order to ensure that the design proposed and demonstrated is suitable for mass production.

3- To carry out the execution activities at single unit level, as well as the engineering activities of the required operations both in the construction site and shelter waters (onshore/inshore) and for transport and installation (offshore)

4- To study the potential replicability in other locations and the future demand of the solution.