19 Mar 2024

Floating Wind Innovation Centre opens in Aberdeen

What’s claimed to be the world’s first dedicated technology centre for floating offshore wind has opened in Aberdeen, aiming to tap into the nascent energy sector.

Principle Power

Run by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, FLOWIC (Floating Wind Innovation Centre) is a £9m facility that will seek to address some of the challenges specific to floating wind, developing and de-risking an array of technologies.

In-house equipment at the centre includes a bespoke dynamic cable flex fatigue rig for testing subsea cables, a large-scale test rig for anchoring systems, a Hexapod floating offshore wind scale motion simulator, and a virtual reality studio.

Scotland’s recent ScotWind Leasing process identified over 19GW of potential floating wind projects, with the Celtic Sea off the Welsh and Cornish coast due to provide even more opportunities in the years ahead. According to the ORE, this pipeline of floating wind projects has the potential to create over 29,000 jobs and deliver more than £43bn in value to UK economy by 2050.

“This facility represents a ground breaking step forward in the commercialisation of floating offshore wind – a sector that will be critical to meeting our Net Zero targets,” said Andrew Jamieson, ORE Catapult chief executive.

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