Chinese shipyard CIMC Raffles-owned floating wind design wins ABS stamp of approval

Bassoe Technology's T-Floater concept lands 'approval in principle' from US certification body

Six Bassoe T-Floater can be transported by a dry-tow vessel
Six Bassoe T-Floater can be transported by a dry-tow vesselFoto: Bassoe

Swedish engineering outfit Bassoe Technology has received an ‘approval in principle’ (AiP) anointment for its innovative T-Floater floating wind platform concept from classification society the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).

The t-shaped, three-column semisubmersible, devised for ultra-harsh North Sea conditions, is designed to be shuttled six-at-a-time on a heavylift, long-distance transport vessels or for in-water assemblies with 10-15MW turbines “facilitating flexibility in assembly port selection allowing quayside installation of the tower and turbine close to the wind farm”.

“ABS has supported on delivering more than 80MW of pioneering floating wind turbine projects to the market. It is great to be able to use this experience to support new innovation in the market, such as this novel design from Bassoe Technology,” said Greg Lennon, vice president for global offshore wind at ABS.

“We are committed to supporting the offshore wind supply chain through project designs that support new approaches to improving deployment processes and managing risks such as the T-Floater.”

Joakim Nilsson managing director of Bassoe, which is owned by Chinese shipyard CIMC Raffles, said: “The T-Floater has been designed to meet the demand for industrialisation and effective logistic solutions for floating wind.

“The ability to transport six 15MW T-Floaters on a single dry-tow vessel will allow for cost-efficient construction and transportation. Together with our parent company, we will have the ability to deliver more than 50 T-Floaters per year but we will also, due to the in-water assembly possibility, be able to work together with local shipyards with limited width of dry-docks/slip-ways to meet local content requirements.”

ABS has classed the world's largest floating wind farm, Scotland’s 50MW Kincardine, which is powering some 55,000 households from its site 15km offshore Aberdeen.
The Global Wind Energy Council expects 16.5GW of floating turbines to be in the water by 2030, a dramatic increase from the 6.5GW it was anticipating only a year ago, with most of that growth coming in the second half of the decade when the sector, which currently has just over 100MW in place, is tipped for dramatic lift-off
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Published 13 December 2021, 17:52Updated 13 December 2021, 17:52
American Bureau of ShippingCIMC RafflesSwedenEuropeAsia-Pacific