TouchWind Installs Floating Wind Prototype in Dutch Waters

TouchWind has installed its floating wind turbine prototype at Fieldlab Green Economy Westvoorne in the Netherlands, moving the POWER project into the in-water testing phase.

The POWER project, short for ‘POsitive Wake Effects of turbines with tilted Rotors’, is studying how turbines with tilted rotors can deflect wakes and access higher-energy wind from upper air layers, with the aim of increasing wind farm power density.

The floating turbine is moored using steel and polyester lines connected to concrete deadweight anchors fitted with 3D-printed reefs developed by Coastruction to support marine ecology, according to the company.

According to TouchWind, its floating turbine concept differs from conventional three-bladed upwind wind turbines through the use of a tilting angled one-piece rotor design aimed at reducing capital and operating costs.

Load shackles integrated into the mooring lines will measure forces acting on the system during operation.

A floating meteorological mast installed at the site in April 2025 is also part of the test setup.

Installation activities were coordinated by TouchWind and Duc Marine, while Peinemann provided crane services to lift the turbine into the water. MARIN supported the mooring operation by monitoring load shackle data to ensure correct tensioning of the mooring lines.

The testing program will run throughout 2026 and collect operational data on turbine performance, platform behavior and mooring loads.

The project also includes onshore wake interaction studies using nine TouchWind turbines positioned near the fieldlab site.

The POWER project consortium includes TouchWind, MOL, TNO, MARIN, Nidec and We4Ce, and receives funding from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).