The WindFloat Atlantic project is taking one of the final steps towards becoming fully operational. The last of the three pre-assembled wind turbine platforms making up the project has left the Port of Ferrol today, heading for its final destination 20 km off the coast of Portugal at Viana do Castelo, in a journey that will take three days.
This operation will be completed by hooking up this last unit to the pre-laid mooring system and connecting it to the rest of the offshore wind farm. This third platform will be installed next to the other two units, which are already up and running and supplying energy to the Portuguese electricity grid.
Transporting each of the three WindFloat Atlantic floating structures is a milestone in itself, as it sidesteps the need for towing craft designed specifically for this process and makes it possible for the project to be replicated elsewhere.
The floating structure –measuring 30 m high and with a 50 m distance between each of its columns – can support the world’s largest commercially available wind turbines, of 8.4 MW production capacity each, on a floating structure. Once all three platforms making up the wind farm are installed, with their 25 MW of production capacity they will be able to generate enough energy to supply the equivalent of 60,000 users each year. WindFloat Atlantic could save almost 1.1 million tons of CO2.