TetraSpar: Floating offshore wind demo project successfully commissioned off the Norwegian coast

RWE together with its partners Shell, TEPCO Renewables and Stiesdal test world’s first fully industrialised floating offshore foundation to pave the way for commercial-scale floating wind

Essen, 1 December 2021

Sven Utermöhlen | Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Offshore Wind

“The spark of genius with the TetraSpar concept is its industrialised manufacturing and assembly methodology, which we think is crucial for long-term cost reduction. Our deep involvement in this project means we have now gathered first-hand evidence about how this approach can be scaled up to commercial projects. This project has taught us more crucial lessons than we could have ever expected, and it has been great to work so collaboratively with our project partners to safely deliver such an innovative technology. It has been particularly interesting to see how important it is to transfer RWE’s experience in seabed-fixed offshore wind into our floating projects. This project’s success motivates us to keep on delivering cutting edge innovation.”

Sven Utermöhlen, CEO Offshore Wind of RWE Renewables

RWE is well on track to become a leader in floating wind and to have one gigawatt either in operation or under construction by 2030. To gain experience early, RWE is participating in multiple high-profile floating demonstration projects like the TetraSpar Demonstrator. Together with its partners Shell, TEPCO Renewables and Stiesdal Offshore Technologies RWE has safely deployed and commissioned the TetraSpar floating foundation off the Norwegian coast.

TetraSpar Demonstrator in operation

The TetraSpar foundation is a tubular steel structure with a suspended keel. The floating platform, including the 3.6 megawatt turbine, was towed to the Norwegian METCentre test site and installed in waters as deep as 200 metres. Recently, the turbine has been connected to the Norwegian grid and is producing power. This marks the start of the test phase where data on the performance and characteristics of the floating foundation will be captured and analysed to pave the way for commercial-scale floating wind projects.

For more information, please view the joint press release of the TetraSpar project partners: Shell, TEPCO Renewables, Stiesdal Offshore Technologies and RWE.

Images and video material for media purposes are available in the RWE Media library (copyright: TetraSpar Demonstrator ApS).