ABS to Install World’s Biggest Floating Wind Turbine

The project is expected to go online by the end of this year.

ABS, a leading class society for floating offshore wind, is installing the world’s largest floating wind turbine of 8.4 MW capacity.

Commenting on the development, ABS, Chairman, President and CEO, Christopher J. Wiernicki said “ABS has supported innovation in offshore energy since 1958. This landmark installation underlines how we continue to support promising technology more than sixty years later.”

“Floating turbines enable us to reach offshore wind resources in water that is too deep for conventional bottom-fixed turbines. It is breakthroughs such as this that will make a vital contribution to the global transition to clean energy,” Wiernicki said.

The company said in a statement that, this is the first of three ABS-classed, SEMI submersible type units designed by Principle Power housing MHI Vestas turbines that will make up for a total of 25 MWs of floating offshore wind power.

Moreover, it is continental Europe’s first larger scale floating wind farm, 20 kms off the coast of Viana do Castello, Portugal.

“Principle Power is very pleased to work with ABS, once again, in the framework of the WindFloat Atlantic project, building on the successful collaboration of the WindFloat 1 prototype. WindFloat Atlantic represents a major milestone for the floating offshore wind industry as it is the world’s first semi-submersible floating wind farm. We are proud of having led the process of industry standard-setting from the early days, together with ABS, and we look forward to taking the WindFloat technology to full commercialization around the world,” said Steven Barras, Chief Technical Officer at Principle Power.

Meanwhile, the project is developed by the Windplus consortium, which is jointly owned by EDP Renováveis, ENGIE, Repsol, and Principle Power. The project is expected to go online by the end of this year.