The work is being carried out at Degima’s facilities in Santander and will be complete by the end of August.
The PivotBuoy platform will then be transported to its final destination in Gran Canaria after the summer.
The platform’s mooring system and floating platform design was completed and then approved by the consortium partners at X1Wind’s offices in Barcelona in March.
The platform is designed as several subsystems that take into account handling and transport for each one.
The design mitigates high shipment costs for transportation from Degima’s facilities to Santander port and then to the Canary Islands.
All of the subsystems will undergo non-destructive tests to ensure maximum quality before they are ready.
So far, the outcome of these tests has been “positive”.
In order to verify that all the pieces fit correctly together before transport to Gran Canaria, the full platform will be pre-assembled at Degima’s facilities, to reduce the risk of costly delays due to unexpected manufacturing tolerance errors during the final assembly.
X1Wind chief technology officer and technical coordinator of PivotBuoy Carlos Casanovas said: “One of the main challenges of the manufacturing has been to maintain the schedule during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Within the project, we have worked with suppliers from all over the world, making the coordination a challenge.
“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.”
The PivotBuoy project off Gran Canaria will validate the benefits of the PivotBuoy system, by piloting a part-scale platform with a Vestas V29 turbine adapted in a downwind configuration and grid connected to PLOCAN test site in the Canary Islands.
The PivotBuoy consortium comprises nine partners from five different countries. They are X1Wind, ESM, WavEC, PLOCAN, INTECSEA, EDP, DTU, DNV GL and Degima.
The project started in April 2019 and will last for 36 months.
