French floating offshore wind specialist BW Ideol said today its 2-MW Floatgen demonstrator off the coast of Le Croisic has shown an average capacity factor of 59.2% over the three months from November 2022 to January 2023.
The only floating wind turbine in France has also achieved generation of 25 GWh since its commissioning in 2018, crossing the threshold after the Atlantic storm Gerard in late January.
The turbine, installed on BW Ideol’s Damping Pool concrete hull foundation, sustained wind speeds up to 37.30 metres per second and up to 5.5 metres of significant wave height.
“Such repeated performance, high availability and consequently high capacity factor underlines the benefits of floating wind and its ability to capture the best possible wind resources without depth constraints, contributing to a much needed energy resilience in the process“ said BW Ideol chief executive Paul de la Gueriviere.
The prototype is deployed at water depths of 33 metres (108 ft) and is producing electricity for about 3,000 housholds. It is owned, operated and maintained by BW Offshore-backed BW Ideol.
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