Offshore staff
DUBLIN, Ireland/FALMOUTH, UK — Floating offshore wind platform designer Gazelle Wind Power signed an MoU with Tugdock late last month to co-develop a modular assembly system for floating offshore wind farms.
Gazelle’s platform is held in place by a patented dynamic mooring system that is said to eliminate pitch and balance movement in response to wind, waves and tide.
Its modular design is claimed to enable scalable and adaptable configurations that are more affordable for deepwater deployments. The company is in talks with various developers on projects with potential for more than 5 GW and for delivery before 2035.
The modularity of the components is intended to provide cost-effective fabrication in shipyards followed by transport to an assembly port, adjacent to a wind farm.
The Tugdock submersible platform, also patented technology, provides a build and launch platform said to address port constraints. The structure combines a steel frame and airlift bags, which provide additional buoyancy, or alternatively a submersible platform for lifting or launching heavy marine structures.
Jon Salazar, CEO of Gazelle Wind Power, said, “While the Gazelle platform possesses a naturally low draft, there are significant benefits to assembling the modules on the Tugdock platform, which doubles as the assembly fixture and launch method, speeding up platform assembly and getting our platform into the water in a safe and cost-effective way.”
The partners’ first project will be the Molise offshore wind farm in the Italian sector of the Adriatic Sea, where the technologies will support installation of 70 turbines designed to generate 1.05 GW of electricity.
Molise will span a 219-sq-km area, with the turbines in water depths ranging from 88 m to 126 m. The first platform is due to be launched in January 2028.
01.03.2024
