Floating wind start-up X1Wind gets multi-million-euro injection for 'commercial' scale-up
Spanish outfit reels in $3m from European Innovation Council to underpin next step in development of innovative concept, soon to start trials off Canary Islands
Spanish floating wind pioneer X1Wind has landed a multi-million-euro cash injection to commercialise its innovative PivotBuoy concept, one of a new generation of designs in the sector moving away from offshore oil industry-inspired engineering.
The €2.5m ($3m) grant, from the European Innovation Council, will support the step-up of the technology developer’s design, a modular tension leg platform with single point mooring system that allows the structure to ‘weathervane’ to harness the wind stream, from its current 1:3 scale version to a size fit for the ultra-large-class turbines now in the market.
X1Wind CEO Alex Raventos said the grant would “provide resources to rapidly accelerate the detailed design and certification process of its first commercial large-scale floating wind units”.
“Following a rigorous application process, this is the result of a tremendous team effort and represents a major vote of confidence in our technology which has matured significantly in recent years, now offering a truly unique and disruptive form on floating wind energy.
“We are currently in the process of evaluating potential pre-commercial sites and projects, in order to continue driving momentum following our current demonstration project in the Canary Islands.”
The PivotBuoy’s modular design is tailored to mass manufacturing, part of a sector-wide trend toward streamlining the industrialisation of floating wind, with Raventos noting that X1Wind’s final commercial-scale design “will draw on knowledge and expertise from experienced fabricators, shipyards and ports to automate and streamline processes, which will ultimately help drive down costs”.