The sea is one of the wealth of our country. Deep, choppy waters, aggressive tides and stormy weather are capabilities that are increasingly sought after by companies dedicated to renewable energy capture projects. We talked a few days ago about a project to extract energy from waves, the CorPower C4. Today we present to you what will be the first floating offshore wind platform.
Wind power production off the coast of Portugal
Gazelle Wind Power is a Dublin-based floating offshore wind platform developer. The company has partnered with Portuguese renewable energy developer WAM Horizon to pilot its platform in Portugal. Our country aims to reach 10 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
Gazelle says Its floating offshore wind platform, designed for deep waters, is modular and scalable, making manufacturing and assembly cost-effective and efficient.
Its components are smaller and lighter, which reduces the need for space in ports and shipyards, and this reduces the need for cranes. The existing port infrastructure can be used to develop the Gazelle platform when it is commercialized in the future.
The Irish company says its platform geometry is less than five degrees, and “an inclination of less than 10 degrees means less wear, less maintenance and longer wind turbine generator life, which translates to higher power output and higher return on investment.”
WAM Horizon, a Portuguese company, has extensive experience in the region. Adelino Costa Matos, President of WAM Horizon, was involved in Portugal’s first large-scale commercial floating wind power project, the 25 MW Atlantic WindFloat project, the first of its kind in the country. Mattos is too Non-executive member of the Board of Directors from a gazelle.
The innovative design of the Gazelle platform makes it a highly promising solution to drive the offshore wind industry into the future, supporting WAM Horizon’s long-term vision of enabling offshore wind at scale. We look forward to continuing to work with the Gazelle team to advance this pilot project and make an impact on the clean energy transition.
