$23 million project is backed by 16 European partners and will last for five years
The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) has announced the launch of BLOW (Black sea fLoating Offshore Wind) aimed at harnessing the floating offshore wind energy potential of the Black Sea.
The €21 million ($23 million) project is being supported by a consortium of 16 European partners and will last for a period of five years.
The project will see the deployment of a 5MW floating wind demonstrator off the Bulgarian coast in the Black Sea.
The demonstrator will use French engineering firm Eolink‘s unique floating offshore wind turbine design, which reduces the turbine’s stresses using four steel masts instead of one.
The unit will be designed to operate with maximum efficiency in the Black Sea, including adapting it with a larger rotor so it can generate more energy in low-wind areas.
Eolink’s chief executive and founder, former Renault engineer Marc Guyot, said: “The objective of this specific project is to demonstrate the competitiveness of floating offshore wind in lower-wind areas with the deployment of a large rotor diameter.”
The unit will be connected to an existing gas platform operated by Petroceltic, a Bulgarian oil and gas company. GSP offshore, a Romanian offshore services operating company, will manufacture the unit in their shipyard in Constanta.
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CEPS said in a statement: “We believe that BLOW has the potential to revolutionize the way we think about offshore wind energy, and we are thrilled to be at the forefront of this exciting new technology.”
CEPS also stated that project BLOW aims to achieve an expected levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of 87€/MWh by 2028, and an even more ambitious target of 50€/MWh beyond 2030.
Projects stakeholders are now conducting feasibility studies, securing relevant permits, preparing maritime spacial planning – with a focus on Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey – and assessing barriers and drivers for deploying floating offshore wind in the Black Sea region.
Eolink’s chief commercial officer Alain Morry said: “The World Bank 2021 report indicates there is vast technical potential in South East Europe, with a staggering 166GW of floating offshore energy in the Black Sea alone, which is the equivalent of five times the electricity consumption of Bulgaria and Romania.
“Through this project we hope to catalyse offshore development across the region, which already has ongoing fixed-bottom offshore wind projects in Romania.”
The project is one of three to be awarded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme last year, all aimed at sustainable energy solutions, with a grant agreement signed at the end of 2022.
