NextFloat X90 Floating Platform Gets DNV Statement of Feasibility

After undergoing a comprehensive series of rigorous evaluations, including meticulous risk assessments and exhaustive studies, the X90 pre-commercial floating wind platform has achieved a significant milestone. World-renowned independent expert DNV has granted the Statement of Feasibility to the X90 platform at the outset of August 2023. This endorsement firmly affirms the integrity and robustness of the groundbreaking design, propelling the project team to continue their dedicated efforts in refining the platform’s design and pursuing its certification.

The X90 design concept had previously demonstrated its capabilities through successfully testing a 1:3 scale floating wind platform at the PLOCAN test site in the Canary Islands as part of the PivotBuoy Project. However, the recent attainment of the Statement of Feasibility for the commercial-size units stands as a step forward on the NextFloat Project, reaffirming the platform’s design with a seal of validation.

The NextFloat Project primary objective is to showcase the floating platform design at full scale, while concurrently making significant strides in industrializing and upscaling the integrated solution up to 20MW+ scale. This endeavor is strategically positioned to align with the ongoing development of commercial floating wind farms across Europe and beyond. The project’s standout feature is the deployment and installation of a pre-commercial 6 MW floating wind prototype at the Mistral test site in the French Mediterranean Sea.

The NextFloat Project was officially launched in Paris in November 2022. This initiative is collaboratively undertaken by a consortium of thirteen esteemed partners hailing from eight countries, with Technip Energies leading as the Project coordinator. Noteworthy contributors include X1 Wind, Naturgy, 2B Energy, Hellenic Cables, Technical University of Denmark, Hydro, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Schwartz Hautmont, Ocas, Tersan Shipyard, Ocean Ecostructures, and Cybernetix. The European Commission’s backing through the Horizon Europe program provides a substantial public funding of 16M€, further bolstered by private contributions from partners and shareholders.

X1 Wind is a disruptive floating wind technology developer. Based in Barcelona, Spain, the firm’s mission is to provide highly scalable solutions which deliver clean, affordable energy while reducing carbon emissions across the globe. The company’s unique floating wind concept was initially developed by Carlos Casanovas in 2012 while studying at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), before progressing the patented technology for almost a decade.

In recent years, X1 Wind has rapidly built a team of now more than 35 experienced experts in the wind and offshore sectors and progressed its technology roadmap, with several tank testing campaigns and the current a part-scale demonstrator under tests in the Canary Islands under real operational conditions. X1 Wind is now backed up by leading industrial and institutional investors such as Technip Energies, Innoenergy and the EIC Fund among others.