Ideol Unveils Floating Electrical Substation

A new market-ready universal floating offshore electrical substation for offshore wind farms has been unveiled by project partners Ideol, Atlantique Offshore Energy and ABB, at a technical seminar in Paris on Friday.

The new substation, a world-first solution developed over a two-year collaborative effort, is based on Ideol’s patented shallow-draft Damping Pool concept and on AOE’s certified electrical offshore substation concept SeeOs. It can be used for both bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind farms starting at depths of 40 meters.

The floating offshore substation has been engineered to operate in extreme environments, offer maximum modularity and generate significant cost reductions, its developers say. The topside installation onto the floater, as well as testing and pre-commissioning, are all done at quayside. Furthermore, installation is performed without the need for offshore heavy-lift operations. And thanks to a time-tested and readily available supply chain, the solution can easily be serial produced.

Ideol said it expects the solution will have a significant market impact, and that the system is ready for upcoming commercial tenders, in France and around the world. The market potential is huge, it said, as 115 GW of new offshore capacity is expected to be installed around the globe by 2030. 

Bruno Geschier, Ideol’s Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, said, “We were happy to welcome the most influential players of the offshore wind industry in Paris today; their enthusiasm for our solution confirms the huge potential of this new product. Ideol, with its patented floating technology and unique in-house expertise, is excited and proud to once again collaborate with leading firms such as AOE and ABB and to contribute to the acceleration of commercial-scale floating offshore wind.” 

Lionel Jossé, AOE’s Head of Sales & Marketing, said, “This project reflects our capacity to capitalize on the lessons learned we have from the Electrical Offshore Substations we successfully delivered, so as to innovate and to implement ready-to-market solutions. The purpose of this workshop was to demonstrate to the different stakeholders of our industry the level of maturity and the relevance of this solution to strengthen the development of the floating offshore wind at a commercial scale”.