Maersk Supply Service has been awarded a contract by Saitec Offshore Technologies for the installation of the mooring system on the offshore DemoSATH floating wind project in Spain.
The offshore installation will be carried out in the second quarter of 2022.
SATH Technology, which is being developed by the Spanish engineering company Saitec Offshore Technology, is based on a concrete platform concept with a plug-and-play Single Point Mooring, the same technology used for FPSOs.
This method is said to enable an easy connection so the platform can be disconnected and taken ashore for O&M.
The platform can rotate freely around this single point like a weathervane, reducing the environmental forces on the platform and, as a consequence, the cost of mooring as well as helping the yaw control of the turbine to orientate the rotor plane against the wind, according to Maersk.
The DemoSATH project will use a 2MW turbine in a full-scale prototype that will be deployed offshore Bilbao and will be the first floating turbine connected to the Spanish grid. This project is part-financed by the German energy company RWE Renewables.
The platform will be towed to its anchorage point in a test field at BiMEP, two miles off the Basque coast, Spain. The water depth at the installation site is around 85 metres.
The construction and assembly work on the prototype DemoSATH has been led by Ferrovial since November 2020.
This project aims to collect data and gain real-life knowledge from the construction procedure, operation, and maintenance of the DemoSATH floating wind platform.