PivotBuoy Floater Enters Construction Stage

The manufacturing of the PivotBuoy offshore wind floating platform has commenced in Santander, Spain.

In March, X1 Wind and its partners completed and approved the design of the single point mooring system platform for floating wind turbines.

After the design was approved, the manufacturing of the PivotBuoy and the floating platform started at DEGIMA facilities.

The construction is to be finished during August, and it will be transported to its final destination at a test site at the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) in Gran Canaria after the summer.

According to the project partners, the design has been divided into several subsystems that take into account the handling and transport of each of them.

This division is expected to allow the project to avoid high shipment costs on both stages of the transportation, first from DEGIMA facilities, where the full platform will be assembled, to Santander port, and then from Santander to the Canary Islands.

The prototype will feature a part-scale platform with a Vestas V29 turbine adapted in a downwind configuration and grid-connected to the test site.

“One of the main challenges of the manufacturing has been to maintain the schedule during the COVID19 Pandemic. Within the project, we have worked with suppliers from all over the world, making the coordination a challenge,” said Carlos Casanovas, CTO of X1WIND and technical coordinator of PivotBuoy.

“With all of us forced to transition to remote work, and the adaptation process this entails on many fronts, it has not been possible to maintain the original schedule. We expect, however, to deliver the finished platform within a reasonable timeline.”