BW Ideol’s 15MW+ floating wind platform receives DNV certification

BW Ideol reports that DNV has officially awarded the Basic Design certificate for its 15MW+ floating wind platform. 

The certificate was awarded at the recent Floating Wind Days event in Haugesund, Norway. 

BW Ideol says that the certification marks a key milestone in its industrial roadmap and confirms the technical soundness of the platform, which has been designed for large-scale deployment.

Unveiled during the Floating Offshore Wind Turbines event last year, BW Ideol says that it has sought to create a standardized floating foundation platform designed for 15MW wind turbine generators.

The platform is said to be compatible with various wind turbine generator original equipment manufacturers within the same range (14 to 16MW), and is currently being scaled up to 22MW. BW Ideol also says that it is adaptable to a wide range of Metocean conditions, from moderate to more challenging environments. The primary objective of this approach is to support multiple projects from a single production line, thereby leveraging the benefits of standardization and achieving economies of scale.   

BW Ideol says that the newly certified platform builds on its experience with earlier projects whose designs were already certified by leading classification societies – Floatgen (Lloyd’s Register, 2016), Hibiki (ClassNK, 2016), Eolmed (Bureau Veritas, 2022) – and paves the way towards generalization of type certification for floating foundations. 

Type-certified floating wind platforms, suited to a range of turbine sizes and environmental conditions, are said to be critical to unlocking the full industrial potential of the sector. Paul de la Guérivière, CEO of BW Ideol, noted that “certified, adaptable, and deployment-ready solution[s]…helps reduce engineering lead times, secure financing, and accelerate permitting processes.”