Floating wind's most successful pioneer has bigger fish to fry

Principle Power, the floating wind pioneer that has deployed its technology on more projects than any rival, is shifting its focus after racking up 1 terawatt hour of grid-connected power in challenging ocean conditions.

With Californian roots but focused strongly on Europe, Japan and Korea, Principle Power has racked up 1TWh through three pre-commercial projects – each a pioneer in its own way (see panel).

A fourth pre-commercial project, this time using Principle Power's third-generation modular-built hulls, will be connected to the French grid later this year, following installation of three 10MW floating wind turbines on the Ocean Winds (Engie-EDPR)-led EFGL array.

With these in place, Principle Power will soon have 105MW of installed capacity in place on different versions of its steel semi-submersible platforms.

“The EFGL project is a great example of how to build a project in France but it is probably the last pre-commercial project the company will do anywhere outside of Japan,” says Smith.

Outside Japan — where there are still unique drivers for full-scale demonstration projects — Principle Power intends to focus on larger commercial-scale projects, he explains.

This is because the wealth of data and hands-on experience, along with design upgrades, have fired up the company's ambitions of spearheading the scaling up of floating offshore wind.

In terms of performance in the water, the assets have coped with Atlantic and North Sea conditions, including waves of up to 20 meters and winds of up to 214km/h, and have done so with a record of 99% platform availability.

“These systems are designed using numerical software, so having the ability to compare the performance of the system in the ocean with the predicted performance helping us to really understand the actual physics.”

“It helps us to increase the accuracy of our numerical models and to prepare for scaling up for the next projects where we are going to be installing using 15-20MW turbines,” he said.

Principle Power says the projects have exceeded production expectations set by preconstruction estimates.

Ocean Winds reported annual energy production from WindFloat Atlantic rising from 78GWh in 2022, to 80GWh in 2023 and 86 GWh in 2024.

The data gathering process has also underpinned a shift in focus from environmental drivers to cost-effective construction and bankability.

“When we first put a 2MW turbine on a floating platform...the ability to withstand the wind and the waves and extreme conditions was really driving design,” Smith recalls.

“As you get to the 8-10MW scale, the environment is still a major contributor to how you're designing your platform, but the turbine starts to dominate the loading in terms of the structure.

“As we go to the even bigger structures and the bigger wind turbines, then you need to have a very optimised system, as Capex and Opex performance matter so much to making these commercial project business cases work. You have to be sharp on your modelling – and it's only possible to do this safely if the tools are backed by real-world data.

“Improved understanding of the loading environment and the structural requirements unlocks scope for real gains toward industrialisation and optimisation of fabrication, and that's critically important," Smith says.

Winning the design race?

Steel semi-submersible structures seem to be gaining the upper hand in the floating offshore wind design race, and variations of Principle Power's own designs can be seen in the planning for floating wind projects in markets including the UK, France, Japan and South Korea.

In the UK, for example, a fully industrialised version of WindFloat is planned for the 100MW Erebus floating wind project, backed by a joint venture TotalEnergies and Simply Blue Group. The project is likely to feature seven 14MW turbines, according to UK planning documents.

The Erebus project is competing for a contract for difference (CfD) in the UK's ongoing AR7 allocation round.

In South Korea, Principle Power has partnered with the Wind Power Korea (Ocean Winds-Aker Offshore Wind) consortium in originating the 1.3GW KFWind project portfolio and has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Korean shipyard HSG Sungdong aiming to optimise facilities and processes for the mass production of floating wind foundations.

In Europe, Principle Power is looking to deepen its partnership with Ocean Winds with a role on Eoliennes Flottantes d’Occitanie (EFLO) a 250MW floating offshore wind project being developed in the Gulf of Lion, southern France.

“We've now got at least a couple commercial scale floating wind projects going towards procurement, working on the key point of industrialising production and making it faster and lower cost,” Smith said.

Repair means learning

Principle Power's track record of taking 12 WindFloat foundations through engineering, construction and installation has also brought experience of operations, maintenance and decommissioning.

WindFloat-1 became the first floating wind unit to be decommissioned, with the turbine removed and inspected, with the platform found to be in “excellent condition”.

On Kincardine, Principle Power, along with developers Cobra Wind and Flotation Energy, faced up to the challenges of tackling a serial defect requiring disconnecting the moorings, towing to port for repair and, eventually reconnecting them.

"We saw that it was feasible and can be done effectively within a normal campaign," Smith says.

"The operations also taught us a lot about how to do it better, which we are incorporating into our plans for those types of repairs that will continue to require tow-to-shore”.

The fact that Kincardine's wind turbines had to be towed back to shore to rectify a serial defect unnerved some bankers and insurers, but Smith says it is the learning process that counts.

“When you look at large-scale projects, the only thing that's certain is that things will go wrong. You will have to do turbine repairs either sooner or later than you expected in the project life," he notes.

"What is important is to be prepared for these. Having the opportunity to run two tow-to-port operations and one in-situ repair operation, gave us the lessons that allow planners of larger projects to proactively already make sure that the design is really optimised for those type of activities."

Setting the course

Smith acknowledges that the focus for key markets for floating wind has "narrowed somewhat" with setbacks for some offshore wind projects and delay on the pace of some auctions .

"From our perspective, that just means that we need to focus on those projects that have secured their offtake agreements and are moving into this procurement phase. But there is still a large variety of projects, with our projects in France, the UK and Korea , and we feel very strongly positioned for all of those," he says.

Smith enthuses about the port developments that have been falling into place in France, including Euroports' investments in the Port-La Nouvelle terminal, serving as a hub for floating wind in southern France.

“It's amazing to see some of the improvements that organisations like Europort are making in France. They have just invested hundreds of millions of euros in the sort of port improvement program that really provides a foundation for industrial scale delivery" he said.

"We hope to see this repeated in other markets,” Smith says of the port investments.

The French projects have also carried Principle Power along the path to its new focus, scaling up to commercial scale projects.

“EFGL took us to 10MW turbines. We are baking in a lot of the lessons learned from the first two projects into the design process.

"A lot of the experience that we've gained in these precommercial projects, navigating through challenging conditions to bring these projects to completion, helps us to advise our partners on how to make sure that all the planning is very robust.”

"And it is once you have kind of robust planning in terms of execution, in terms of budget, and in terms of schedule, that you can make sure you're actually able to deliver."

Japan is different

Principle is still targeting Japan for pre-commercial projects because of that country's approach to the learning curve for floating offshore wind and one project in particular.

Tokyo Gas Green Innovation Fund has called for the design and local construction of a WindFloat T-class semi-submersible hull suitable for a 15MW turbine in a key test project that will address Japan's shortage of shipyard dock facilities for building floating foundations.

The project will use a version of Principle Power’s modular design that allows for the manufacturing foundations blocks at different yards before assembling at a single location.

Goals include exchange of the inputs from WindFloat and leveraging the expertise of Japanese shipbuilding companies to establish a cost-effective mass manufacturing process for floating foundations in Japan.

'Learning by doing"

"These demonstration projects can be really important for opening markets and Japan's is the type of market where participants go deliberately and carefully until they have the confidence to execute well," Smith says.

"Once a decision is made to proceed, the Japanese industry has the potential to go really fast. And we hope in the right direction," he said.

The Japanese project aims to apply the lessons of the EFGL, where this modular approach was applied, with components were brought in from across the European region and final assembly performed at the port of Fos-sur-Mur by Eiffage Metal

While this modular and distributed model is seen as crucial for industrialisation of a sector that needs to leverage regional or global supply chains, Principle Power has also been working with leading fabricators and equipment suppliers about what would a purpose built WindFloat factory look like.

"By centralising things, the industry could really take the cost out to its full potential," says Smith.

"By setting up a highly automated fabrication process, you can really reduce the cost differential versus some of the other lower labor cost countries."

But Smith also acknowledged that this vision requires a stable policy environment where multiple gigawatts of floating projects are visible on a regular schedule stretching years ahead.

He sees a higher likelihood of these conditions materialising in Japan or South Kora and "perhaps in Scotland".

“Our strategy for industrialization was built on a twofold basis. In the near term, it's maximising compatibility with the existing fabrication capacity in the world, because we know that with this current uncertainty, it's difficult to build new capacity.

"But in the medium to long term, it's really looking at purpose-built facilities,” he says.