A crucial step of Floatgen’s installation successfully completed

The successful offshore installation of Floatgen’s innovative mooring system paves the way for the installation of France’s first offshore wind turbine.

The mooring system components were assembled and installed on the SEM-REV test site which will host Floatgen, 22 kilometers off the coast of Le Croisic in western France. This highly innovative system was conceived and engineered by Ideol, the internationally recognized leader in floating offshore wind. It is composed of 6 nylon mooring lines, a worldwide premiere for a permanent mooring system of such dimensions.

This installation took place as the construction of the concrete floating foundation built by Bouygues Travaux Publics in Saint-Nazaire is coming to an end. Once equipped with the wind turbine, the complete unit is expected to be tugged before the end of the year towards SEM-REV, the world’s 1st multiple MRE technology test site connected to the grid.
Destined to equip other MRE systems, the mooring system designed by Ideol must satisfy two sometimes contradictory requirements:

– a cost-competitive manufacturing and installation enabling the production of electricity at the lowest possible cost

– the weathering of extreme environmental conditions such as high swell, biofooling, storms…

The engineering teams will monitor this innovative system during the entire project’s lifetime whilst several R&D projects are already underway to analyze and perhaps even improve this pioneering mooring system’s performance.