Last week our R&D Composite Team Leader, Bartolome Mas, went to Madrid to take part in the first general assembly to mark the beginning of an exciting new project, FLOTANT. The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (Plocan) leads the European Flotant project which aims to develop a floating, innovative and low cost offshore wind technology, optimized for deep water (100m-600m) and capable of supporting a 10+ wind turbine MW.
Together with the technical coordination of the Cobra group and 16 other partners from across Europe, Future Fibres will be helping to develop the basic engineering needed to improve the cost-efficiency ratio of floating offshore energy in deep waters. As well as studying the social and socio-economic impact to increase the acceptance of floating offshore energy in deep waters.
For the project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Future Fibres will be developing cables under the ocean for the wind turbines, measuring an incredible 1000 metres in length and weigh 100 tons! The hybrid polimer carbon fibre mooring cables will also have integrated sensing fibres for monitoring.
This will be a new breakthrough in innovation in this type of technology, which Future Fibres is proud to be a part of.