Sweden-based Hexicon and Elia Grid International (EGI) have joined forces to connect the wind energy produced by floating offshore wind farms to the onshore grid .
Under the agreement, the partners will develop concepts and projects to integrate large-scale floating offshore wind farms into the onshore power systems.
By doing so, the two companies expect to create the opportunity to harvest the full potential of floating offshore wind to provide clean energy to millions of households and accelerate the energy transition.
The five-year-long cooperation consists of two phases, covering the provision of expertise during the projects’ pre-development and development phases.
“The ability to early plan and design an efficient and robust electrical system is key to the business case and successful projects. Hexicon’s and EGI’s competences are fully complementary and very well matched,” said Marcus Thor , CEO of Hexicon.
“EGI brings unsurpassed global experience within electrical transmission and large-scale RES integration projects. While Hexicon offers profound deep sea and floating wind knowledge.”
According to the partners, they will design the power transmission part of floating wind farms and optimise the connection to onshore power systems.
By solving the technical challenges related to floating offshore wind projects, EGI and Hexicon are hoping to turn floating offshore wind into an attractive market for investors.
“Connecting offshore wind technology to the electrical grid system is a complex and costly endeavour. With this cooperation, EGI is committed to providing state-of-the-art expertise and proposing innovative solutions that will unleash the development of cost-efficient, large-scale renewable energy,” said Didier Wiot , CEO of EGI.
Potential geographies for the cooperation include the Mediterranean as well as the Baltic and Atlantic Sea basins.
Work is expected to start in June 2022.
Hexicon has its own patented technology – TwinWind – which consists of a floating foundation with two turbines. The twin-turbine design is said to enable more turbines per sea area, which increases the energy yield and reduces the environmental impact.
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