Weaving wind and wave energy in European waters

Danish offshore platform technology doubles up on the ocean’s limitless potential

The ocean’s horizon is seemingly limitless. So, too, is its energy potential.

Floating Power Plant, established in 2004, has designed, developed and patented a buoyant oceangoing platform called the P80. It harvests wind and tidal energy at the same time, combining a 5-to-8-megawatt (MW) floating wind turbine with a 2-to-3.6-MW wave device.

And in recent months, the Danish clean-tech company announced that it had partnered with DP Energy, a U.K.-based renewable energy developer, on a joint venture to evaluate a pair of offshore pilot projects—one off the coast of Scotland’s Caithness County, and the other near Dyfed County in Wales.

“Floating Power Plant provides one of the most promising hybrid technologies in the sector for extracting both wind and wave energy,” says Simon De Pietro, the CEO of DP Energy.

Depending on the success of the technology, he said, each site could have a capacity of about 200 MW of energy, deployed in stages.

Moored at a single point, the P80 platform rotates to face waves, absorbing 60 to 80% of their inherent energy, while the turbine moves independently to face the wind.

“Of the estimated 400 GW offshore wind market by 2050, Floating Power Plant is targeting 20 GW,” says CEO Anders Kohler.

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