On March 14th, 2023, high-level professionals from the offshore wind industry gathered at PLOCAN onshore facilities for the PivotBuoy Workshop Event. This event marked the closing of the PivotBuoy Project, a Consortium of nine partners from five different countries (X1 Wind, ESM, WavEC, PLOCAN, INTECSEA, EDP, DTU, DNV GL, and DEGIMA) and showcased positive results regarding the X30 scale-prototype platform performance installed in the Canary Islands.
The PivotBuoy Workshop Event counted with the attendance of more than 50 high-level professionals from the offshore wind industry, including end-users, turbine OEMs, EPCI Developers and other key suppliers, R&D centers, and also government representatives.
During the workshop, participants had the opportunity to observe the X30 prototype performance on-live through a SCADA interactive session. Furthermore, attendees visited the prototype in its location offshore, being able to observe the platform’s behavior and stability in operation.
“This project has proven a new structural and mooring configuration that will bring substantial cost reductions for the floating wind industry,” said Alex Raventos, CEO of X1Wind. “The Final Project Workshop has been a fantastic opportunity to share the results with our partners, advisory board members, suppliers, and other institutions that have supported the project and thank them for their contribution,” added Raventos. “We are looking forward to the next steps in this journey, which will include the pre-commercial and commercial deployment of this technology, in order to make floating wind more competitive and able to actively contribute to the energy transition,” he concluded.
The innovative X30 platform is equipped with a specially customized V29 Vestas turbine and ABB power converter (read more). Additionally, the unique mooring system combines the advantages of a single-point mooring (SPM) with a tension leg platform (TLP). The proprietary design enables the floater to ‘weathervane’ passively and maximizes energy yields. Compared to conventional designs that require catenary mooring lines, the TLP mooring system significantly decreases the seabed footprint, reduces environmental impact, improves compatibility with other sea activities and allows the platform to be deployed in deeper waters (read more).
The X30 platform was installed last October and is now being tested in fully operational conditions, feeding the electricity produced to PLOCAN’s smart grid (read more).
Supported by €4million from the European Commission H2020 Program, with a consortium coordinated by X1 Wind including leading companies EDP NEW, DNV, INTECSEA, ESM and DEGIMA and world-class research centres WavEC, DTU and PLOCAN, PivotBuoy aims to substantially reduce the current Levelized Cost Of Electricity (LCOE) of floating wind. Key advantages of the PivotBuoy system include a reduced floater weight, faster and cheaper installation processes and the ability to reach deeper waters with minimal seabed footprint thanks to the TLP mooring system.
X1 Wind is a disruptive floating wind technology developer. Based in Barcelona, Spain, the firm’s mission is to provide highly scalable solutions which deliver clean, affordable energy while reducing carbon emissions across the globe. The company’s unique floating wind concept was initially developed by Carlos Casanovas in 2012 while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), before progressing with the patented technology for almost a decade. In recent years, X1 Wind has rapidly progressed its technology, having successfully executed several tank testing campaigns and completed the design, assembly, load-out, and decommissioning of a full-featured part-scale demonstrator in the Canary Islands. It has recently been selected by the European Commission to deliver the NextFloat project, an ambitious program accelerating industrial-scale floating wind together with Technip Energies and a consortium of 12 partners, to install the first commercial-scale pilot of this innovative technology in the South of France (read more). The company has steadily been building a world-class team of experts in the offshore wind industry and related sectors.
