The third meeting of the FloWind Joint Industry Project (JIP) took place virtually late last month, bringing together key players to discuss the latest developments within the floating wind sector. The JIP was attended by 25 participants including representatives of major Classification Societies, energy companies, developers, national government, and the insurance sector.

Since the last meeting that took place in July 2021, there has been an increase in activity within the floating wind sector largely driven by the commercialisation of projects and need for energy security. Growing concerns over energy prices have contributed to increasing interest in floating wind research. On the other hand, issues relating to regulation and technical novelty are delaying further progress. The aim of the third FloWind JIP meeting was to improve understanding of obstacles within the industry to enable more developments to take place.

The meeting included feedback from the two working groups: the Technical / Integrity Group and the Regulatory Group. The Integrity / Technical work group shared emerging design types for floating structures, TRL (Technology Readiness Level) status, integrity issues, failure points and mechanisms, and proposed future work. The Regulatory framework work group discussed some of the international updates to regulations internationally. In addition, there was a broad ranging discussion about risk from the insurers’ perspective, assurance of floating asset integrity, which has a significant impact on investment and funding of projects.

The JIP Director, Danny Constantinis, Executive Chairman and CEO of the EM&I Group – international asset integrity specialists – commented: “The FloWind JIP is contributing to establishing the way forward for the floating wind industry, which is now more important than ever. By combining insight from various sectors, we will be able to plan for long term renewable energy security.”