Europe’s first floating offshore wind farm
WindFloat Atlantic is Continental Europe’s first floating offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Viana do Castelo, Portugal. Since February 2020, WindFloat Atlantic has been supplying the Portuguese electricity grid with innovative clean energy. Commissioned in 2020, this offshore wind farm uses cutting-edge technology, which enabled the installation of floating platforms in previously inaccessible water depths, where abundant wind resources can be harnessed.
259 GWh,
total cumulative production
After several years of work, the project became fully operational in July 2020. At the end of 2023, WindFloat Atlantic had recorded a total cumulative production of 259 GWh, reaching the planned figures.
Testing off the coast of Aguçadoura (Porto area – Portugal), in a prototype version called WindFloat1, which preceded the WindFloat Atlantic project. Since its implementation in 2011 and through the course of 5 years, the WindFloat 1, with a wind turbine of 2 MW, despite extreme weather conditions – 17 meter-high waves and 60 knot winds – kept a good production capacity.
Permits obtained include the environmental permit received in November 2015, the 30-year maritime concession for the WFA project area, and for REN’s export cable also in November 2015, and the production permit issued by the DGEG (Directorate General for Energy and Geology) in March 2018.
WindPlus closed with the European Investment Bank (EIB) a loan for 60 M€ in October 2018.
The EIB has agreed to finance the WFA Project through a special facility called InnovFin Energy Demo Projects, which is intended to develop “first of a kind” projects and has been developed jointly with the European Commission.
The project also received funding from the European’s Commission NER300 Programme, a mechanism for the financing of commercial demonstration projects.
Construction of WFA included:
WFA is being operated from the O&M base located in the commercial port of Viana do Castelo. The project has been designed and certified to remain in operation for 25 years.
The offshore wind power plant consists of 3 wind turbines, supported by 3 semi-submersible floating structures based on the “WindFloat” technology, developed by Principle Power.
This technology is based on the evolution of the platforms used in the oil industry for its application to the offshore wind energy sector, whose technical feasibility had been demonstrated with the full-scale prototype called “Wind Float 1”, with a commercial Vestas V80 (2 MW) wind turbine.
Each triangular floating platform is semi-submersible and anchored to the seabed. It consists of 3 vertical columns, interconnected/solidary to each other, and one of them is attached the base of the wind turbine tower. The lateral distance of the platform (between the center of the columns) is about 50m. Its stability is reinforced by a system of gates that are filled with water at the base of the three columns, associated with a static and dynamic ballast system. This active ballast system moves the water between columns to compensate for the stresses caused by the wind thrust on the wind turbine. This moving ballast compensates for significant differences in wind speed and direction. Its purpose is to keep the wind turbine tower upright to optimize its performance.
The offshore wind power plant consists of 3 wind turbines, supported by 3 semi-submersible floating structures based on the “WindFloat” technology, developed by Principle Power.
The same way it is generated on an onshore wind farm. Wind is used to generate electricity using the kinetic energy produced by moving air. This is converted into electricity using wind turbines or wind energy conversion systems. The wind first strikes the blades of the turbine, causing them to rotate and the turbine connected to them to rotate. This converts the kinetic energy into rotational energy, moving the shaft connected to the generator and thus generating electricity through electromagnetism.
Source: irena.org/wind
The energy generation logic is the same offshore and onshore, through the wind turbines. Offshore wind farms are located at sea, either fixed to the bottom of the seabed or floating and anchors.
At sea, the winds are blowing strong, and in a continuous manner. Implementing windfarms at sea further from the coast and far from any kind of interference in the wind, means greater capacity of generation.
Offshore wind solutions therefore embody the ability to meet high demands in electricity and will also be crucial in generating the clean energy necessary for green hydrogen production.
That’s why offshore wind farms are seen as key to the energetic transition, towards a carbon neutral economy.
In locations where sea depths do not allow for bottom-fixed projects and to reduce environmental and visual impacts, floating wind technology is now proven to be ready for commercial scale, thanks to projects like WFA. The location of turbines at sea does not affect the landscape or the quality of life of local communities.
Each floater is equipped with three anchors in order not to drift away in the ocean. In WFA, each anchor was fixed in an area with sea depth of approximately 95 meters, by placing it on the (sandy) seabed and pulling/dragging by use of an Anchor Handling Vessel, which causes the anchor to bury itself in the planned location.
Each triangular floating platform is semi-submersible and anchored to the seabed. It consists of 3 vertical columns, interconnected/solidary to each other, and to one of them is attached the base of the wind turbine tower. The lateral distance of the platform (between the center of the columns) is about 50m. Its stability is reinforced by a system of gates that are filled with water at the base of the three columns, associated with a static and dynamic ballast system. This active ballast system moves the water between columns to compensate for the stresses caused by the wind thrust on the wind turbine. This moving ballast compensates for significant differences in wind speed and direction. Its purpose is to keep the wind turbine tower upright to optimize its performance.
