Ireland's Gazelle Develops Floating Wind Platform for 18MW+ Turbines, Completes Testing Under Extreme Typhoon Sea Conditions

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 21, Irish floating offshore wind technology company Gazelle Wind Power announced that it has completed the design and testing of a next-generation floating platform for large wind turbines of 18MW and above. The platform is being advanced in cooperation with a large Asian utility company for a large-scale floating offshore wind project in a typhoon-prone sea area, with the design goal of supporting next-generation high-capacity turbines under strong winds, large waves, and complex ocean current conditions.

The new platform continues to adopt Gazelle's core constant-tension mooring concept, consisting of a central counterweight, three articulated mooring frames (AMFs), and near-vertical mooring lines, using passive restoring forces to control platform motion and mooring loads without the need for an active ballast system. This upgrade adopts a tripod support structure and redesigns the articulated mooring frames and hull geometry to improve hydrodynamic performance, load distribution, and mooring flexibility, while reducing structural weight and increasing damage tolerance.

For typhoon sea area conditions, Gazelle simulated the platform under normal operation and extreme survival states. The test conditions included a 50-year extreme wind speed of 59.8 m/s at a hub height of 155 meters, and a 50-year significant wave height of 14.2 meters. Simulation results showed that the platform's roll and pitch angles were both controlled within 5 degrees, and tower-top acceleration and tower-base loads remained within the project design standards. Gazelle and the project client also completed a round of basin model tests to compare physical test data with numerical models and to calibrate model parameters for subsequent engineering design stages.

In terms of cost, Gazelle conducted preliminary calculations using a conventional semi-submersible floating foundation scheme as a benchmark for comparison. The new scheme is expected to reduce capital expenditure by approximately 44% and lower the levelized cost of electricity by approximately 52%. The company attributes the cost reduction to reduced demand for structural and mooring materials, a smaller platform sea footprint, modular steel structure construction, and greater use of existing port infrastructure. The platform also supports towing the entire turbine back to port for maintenance, which can reduce dependence on specialized offshore engineering installation and maintenance vessels. The above data currently come from project design and preliminary cost assessment and will continue to be verified as the engineering work progresses.

Gazelle has previously continued to advance the engineering of floating wind platforms. Its platform technology obtained a DNV feasibility statement in 2021, completed basin tests of a 10MW-class platform in Spain in 2022, launched a third-generation platform scheme in 2023, and expanded its design capability to turbines above 15MW. The company is currently also advancing the 2MW Nau Azul floating wind demonstration project offshore Aguçadoura in Portugal. As the unit capacity of offshore wind turbines continues to increase toward 18MW and above, the structural weight, mooring loads, port compatibility, and full life-cycle maintenance costs of floating foundations are becoming important engineering aspects of large-scale development of deep-sea wind power.