Ten partners from six European countries gathered in Paris in June to kick-off a research project on offshore wind energy, featuring a world premiere: The INFLOW (INdustrialization setup of a FLoating Offshore Wind turbine) demo project, directed by French engineering company Technip, will see the deployment of a design commercial size floating vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) in the Mediterranean Sea near Marseille.
Together with a similar turbine prototype to be installed in the course of the predecessor project VERTIWIND, the world’s first offshore test site with multiple floating wind turbines will be established. Funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme and running for four years, the main target of INFLOW is to optimize the existing VAWT prototype and to manage all aspects required to initiate a viable industrialisation phase, in order to launch a 26MW wind farm and to develop even larger farms in the future.
Together with a similar turbine prototype to be installed in the course of the predecessor project VERTIWIND, the world’s first offshore test site with multiple floating wind turbines will be established. Funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme and running for four years, the main target of INFLOW is to optimize the existing VAWT prototype and to manage all aspects required to initiate a viable industrialisation phase, in order to launch a 26MW wind farm and to develop even larger farms in the future.
