The Windfloat Atlantic project (WFA) has been a corner stone in Innovation for the Offshore wind sector in general and in specific for the companies involved in the development of such an unique business initiative.
Innovation does not come through just because of the technical nature of the Windfloat technology. In that sense, the WFA was the consolidation of a specific floating technology, after the Windfloat prototype being successfully deployed in 2011 and operated for more than 5 years with great results, where integration of design changes and improvements have allowed for going further offshore, to even deeper waters and using the largest commercial available wind turbines.
But innovation came also by being the first offshore floating wind farm to successfully achieved Project Finance, when in October 2018, Windplus signed a 60M EUR deal with European Investment Bank and this was seen by all actors of the industry, setting another milestone that until today still was not broken by any other industry player.
Finally, but not less relevant, the innovation was also felt by the way that Windplus contracted and managed the project, with a clear multicontract approach, where dozens of contracts were signed and Windplus team had the role of a true Integrator, capturing through experience all aspects of the project execution with the strategic view of retaining knowledge that can leverage Ocean Winds for future investments where the floating technology will be deployed in larger commercial.
