Concession of the European project “WHEEL”
The WHEEL project, which has a budget of more than 25 million, within the framework of the Horizon Europe programme, brings together a consortium of renowned European companies and research institutions with extensive experience and a leading position in the marine and renewable energy industry.
This multidisciplinary team unites forces to complete the full demonstration of a disruptive technology, by testing this revolutionary floating wind technology at real scale, which will demonstrate the competitiveness and advantages it can bring to European aspirations of global leadership in offshore wind development.
The general objective of the five-year project is to demonstrate at pre-commercial technological level a floating wind technology system specially designed for deep water location and contributing to an effective industrialization strategy, reduced costs and minimized carbon footprint.
This will make it possible to take an essential step towards reducing LCoE (Levelised Cost of Energy), while addressing the scalability, suitability and availability of port infrastructure, and the sustainability and circularity of offshore floating wind power
The development and demonstration required to achieve the desired TRL (Technology Readiness Level) will be achieved through design, installation, certification and testing of a fully operational 6MW pilot unit, which will show the revolutionary advantages that WHEEL technology can offer to the floating wind industry.
It will be installed in deep waters at the PLOCAN test area (Canary Islands, Spain), where it will be carefully monitored for a period sufficient to support the commercialization of the technology.
The project has completed its detailed design phase, which was approved by the experts of the European Commission, and has received approval to proceed to the construction phase. This progress to the next phase 2 of prototype construction, involves receiving the next package of European funds allocated to the project.
