Saitec achieves 2.4 million for its floating offshore wind energy technology

Saitec Engineering has obtained a grant of 2.4 million euros from the European Commission’s Blue Economy Window initiative to finance the SATHScale project, which will address the challenge of bringing SATH floating offshore wind technology to market through the development of the prototype that begins with the validation and demonstration of its technology.

It involves developing the floating offshore wind prototype in a relevant environment until reaching the technology maturity levels (Technology Readiness Levels), required for commercial products in relevant markets. Ultimately, it is about addressing the industrial preparation and maturity of these for launch on the market. To do this, the real experiences of the 2MW DemoSATH demonstrator that will be installed at BiMEP (Biscay Marine Energy Platform) in Bizkaia (Euskadi) will be used.

There are currently 27 patented models around the world awaiting validation with scale prototypes to exploit this renewable energy source and of these 27 models, seven are Spanish (26% of the total), including the of this Basque company.

This funding comes from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), which launched in November 2019 a call called BlueInvest Grants: Investing in Blue Innovation, endowed with 22 million euros to develop and launch new products, services or models of small and medium-sized businesses, with the aim that they could improve the availability of maritime technologies and / or services in the market.

Carlos Garrido-Mendoza, Saitec’s head of R&D, affirms that SATHScale is “an important project for Saitec with the aim of industrializing, internationalizing and scaling technology”. SATHScale, highlights, “will allow us to advance towards the level of commercial maturity required, thanks to the experience in the open sea, essential to fully understand the challenges of behavior, survival and reliability of the device before it enters the market”.

Prefabrication is one of the main advantages offered by this technology. Therefore, SATHScale will focus on the development of an industrialized manufacturing system for mass production, including the manufacturing process, transportation, installation, deployment, operations and maintenance, and decommissioning of the offshore wind platform. Manufacturing portability will allow the use of local labor to facilitate project management and intensify the local supply chain.

Another key point is the optimization in the design in relation to costs and dynamic behavior. The data obtained in the real experiences will be contrasted with the values ??obtained in the previous calculations, so that relevant information is obtained to apply in the next design processes.

Risk reduction in technology innovations and unforeseen events, improved health and safety and reduced costs will be achieved through the optimization of operations and data and analysis of the maintenance of DemoSATH , the 2MW device to be installed in open waters off the Basque coast.

Finally, the project aims to achieve the internationalization of the technology, creating different subsidiaries in markets in which there is great wind potential and in which offshore wind energy is making great progress with the aim of achieving climate neutrality.