Spanish firms Sener and Amper developing new floating platform for 15MW offshore wind turbines

Sener Renewable Investments and Amper have agreed to work together to develop, commercialise and market a new platform for floating wind turbines.

They believe their semi-submersible steel Hive Wind platform will be cheaper than other platforms and could be optimised for mass production. 

It will be capable of supporting turbines with power ratings of 15MW and upwards, they added. 

A reduced-scale version is now being tested at an experimental facility at the University of Cantabria to evaluate its hydrodynamic behaviour – a process expected to take several weeks.

The two Spanish companies both have a track record in the floating offshore wind sector. Amper’s participation is led by its Nervion Naval-Offshore business, which includes its offshore wind interest as well as a longstanding shipbuilding business. It will call on subsidiaries to provide different assembly, technology and engineering capabilities. These business units have helped to manufacture floating offshore wind components in Spain, according to the company. 

Meanwhile, Sener Renewables has been promoting floating offshore wind in Spain since 2020, it says. It will work with sister company Sener Ingenieria, which provides engineering services. Engineering firm Sener’s previous experience includes the 50MW Kincardine Offshore Windfarm Kincardine Offshore Windfarm (50MW) Offshoreoff Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, Europe Click to see full details in UK waters, for which it supervised the manufacturing of the floating platforms. 

It is also involved in project development of floating offshore wind projects off the coast of Spain.

Both companies stressed the aim of mass-producing the new platform. 

Roberto Bouzas, the general manager of Nervión Naval Offshore, said the alliance “places us in a good position to develop standardized floating structures”.

The new platform shows variation in design from that used at Kincardine: instead of the turbine being positioned centrally, the new design shows the turbine at one of the triangular platform’s points and internal bracing.