Partners

SEAFLEX is a provider of an elastic mooring solution for floating PV, docks/pontoons, wave attenuators and buoys that is unrivalled in its ability to keep the floating application stable and secure even in locations exposed to extreme weather conditions. The registered office of Seaflex AB is close to the Arctic circle, in Umeå, Sweden. Through distributors, around 97 percent of our sales are exported every year. Seaflex AB possesses considerable expertise regarding its principal product, moorings, and we have developed and improved all products right from our concept. We have extensive knowledge of computations and how forces can affect different kinds of moorings. These documented skills and knowledge enable us to be a company with considerable expertise of the SEAFLEX mooring system, energies, forces, and related computations in marina environments. Our strengths are the products and the staff, who provide support and monitor installations from start to finish. SEAFLEX has been designing moorings with progressive dampening for more than 30 years, today we have more than 1200 installation sites.

Therefore, they have a wide network of customers in the ocean sector for which they have carried out different projects like:

• Mooring the WEC Waves4Power (Norway)
• Mooring the WEC CrestWing (Denmark)
• Anti slack and snap module for the WEC CorPower (Sweden)
• Equipment for ocean aereation pump (Sweden)
• Mooring of several floating solar energy converters (Portugal, USA, India, South Korea etc)

First moorings manufactured and installed 1975

Main infrastructure of SEAFLEX for developing and installing its mooring systems includes:

• Underwater anchor drilling robot (up to 80 tons holding power depending on sea bed)
• The SEAFLEX Group facilitates +2500 sqm of production area in two locations (Vinslov and Umea Sweden), branch offices in USA, Spain and Australia.

• Experience from several different ocean energy projects including floating PV projects
• In-house DNV-certified break and longevity cycle loading capacity measurement equipment for controlling batch quality and development

Short description of scope in the project: Seaflex will act as the project coordinator and main contributor to the project. Seaflex will demonstrate the innovative mooring system in the project and provide the interface between the developed floaters and the mooring to distribute the loads smoothly on the structures.

EDP Gestão da Produção da Energia, S.A (“EDP Produção” or “EDPP”) has some 1000 workers, with an installed capacity of 10 GW, 6.7 GW of which is hydropower (approximately 2.5 GW of which with pumping capacity). A base load of about 9TWh is ensured by 4x314MW coal fired power plant at Sines. The second main generation component is based on natural gas with 3x400MW combined cycle units in Ribatejo power plant. Hydraulic generation largely depends on rain fall, ranging from 14TWh to less than 50% of that figure in dry years. EDPP is the branch of EDP Group in charge of electricity generation in Portugal (wind not included).

Short description of scope in the project: As a key utility partner and major hydro operator, EDP P will be the responsible for the commercial installation site where the newly developed mooring system will be tested (WP5). It will participate on the technical requirements specification (WP2) as well as on the support for Task 5.3, which involves the assembly, physical connection and cabling of the newly mooring system to be installed on the EDPP site.

ISIGENERE is an engineering and product development company that developed ISIFLOATING, the pioneering floating solar system in the world since 2008. ISIFLOATING uses a unique and patented PV floating technology which enables the covering of partial or entire water surfaces to build floating solar power plants on top of multiple water environments: hydropower plants, irrigation reservoirs, industrial water ponds, tailing dams, natural lakes and ponds, water treatment facilities, aquaculture farms or even lands prone to flooding.

Short description of scope in the project: The scope of ISIFLOATING is to design and readapt its existing solar island in order to give evidence of full compliance between the new mooring system studied in this project and the PV floating platform make up by ISIFLOATING floats and accessories.

The existing solar floating technology has proven succesfull performance in calm water surfaces in enclosed water surfaces. However, the adaption to greater water surfaces such as big dams and hydropower facilities demands to explore new solutions in terms of mooring and anchoring to the solar island. Water levels variations, water currents near the dam outlet and larger waves needs to be tackled by means of achieving a mooring sytem which will be compatible with the floats strength and rest of the components of the PV floating platform at an affordable costing.

RISE Research Institutes of Sweden is Sweden’s test center, research institute and innovation partner. In international collaboration with companies, academia and the public sector, we contribute to a competitive business community and a sustainable society. Our 2 700 employees run and support all types of innovation processes.

RISE is an independent state-owned research institute offering unique expertise and 100 test and demonstration environments for future-proof technologies, products and services. RISE has research ongoing in a wide range of fields. Ocean energy and PV research for various industries has been ongoing at RISE for a long time. Competences on ocean testing and demonstration is a central competence within RISE. Experts on various topics work closely together. With international collaborations constantly ongoing, RISE reaches out to the worldwide research community in the field of floating PV which will increase the quality of this study.

RISE will be responsible for the testing of components and whole system by in-situ monitoring, onshore testing and offshore testing. They will contribute with analysis and quality survey of all testing. RISE will perform numerical modelling and RAM analysis of relevant systems.

WAVEC Offshore Renewables is a private non-‐profit association created in 2003 devoted to the development and promotion of offshore energy utilization thorough technical and strategic support to companies and public bodies.

WAVEC is currently formed by 13 associates (industrial and public), both Portuguese and foreign, willing to develop ocean energy and recognizing the need for more cooperation both on National and International level.

WAVEC is composed by a multidisciplinary team of 21 specialists (9 PhDs) with a broad range of experience on ocean energy. In addition to a wide portfolio in international consultancy, dissemination and R&D work, WAVEC has increased its focus on numerical modelling of floating structures, socio-‐economic issues, environmental impacts assessment and an active involvement in roadmaps and policy planning. WAVEC has long experience in offshore renewable technologies at R&D level, but also, and depending on the cases, on conceptual, design, construction, deployment and operational phases. WAVEC has been involved in the development in the last 10 years in a number of projects including DEMOWFLOAT (to demonstrate Windfloat floating wind system), DEMOGRAVI3 (demonstrating a full-scale foundation for a 2 MW offshore wind turbine), FW TURBINE (to investigate the operability of floating wind turbine in wind and waves and the extreme loads on the structure and mooring lines) as well as a large number of additional projects in both floating wind, wave and tidal energy which are relevant to the project (e.g. ORECCA, TROPOS, KIC-OTS, KRAKEN, OCEANET, etc.).

Short description of scope in the project: The main activities undertaken by WavEC involve the numerical modelling of the dynamics of solar floating structures with different Seaflex mooring systems/arrangements (in order to estimate motions, velocities, structural loads and loads on mooring lines). In addition, WavEC will contribute to evaluate the system cost-effectiveness through a detailed techno-economic assessment.

EDP Centre for New Energy Technologies (EDP CNET, also called EDP NEW) is a subsidiary of the EDP Group and has the mission of creating value through collaborative R&D in the energy sector. It is fully committed to research and development with a strong focus in technology demonstration projects. EDP CNET was the result of an internal reorganization process, centralizing the Group’s R&D activities in a newly created centre, established within EDP Group’s laboratorial facilities and creating EDP’s technical excellence centre of R&D in the EDP Group.

Short description of scope in the project: EDP CNET will help in the technical requirements specification, assisting EDPP in the system specification and developing a cost model for floating solar parks. In addition, EDP CNET focus will be on the data analysis and impact assessment of the commercial installation site of EDPP with a complementary contribution for the exploitation of results.