Nautical Sunrise project invests €6.8m in plans to build world’s largest offshore floating solar system

March 5, 2024 Editor

Horizon Europe’s Nautical Sunrise project has invested €6.8m (US$7.4m) in floating solar company SolarDuck’s €8.4m (US$9.1m) plans to design, build and showcase the world’s largest offshore floating solar (OFS) system.

The project to execute research and development on OFS systems and their components began in December 2023. It is expected to enable the large-scale deployment and commercialization of OFS systems in the future, both as standalone systems and integrated into offshore wind farms.

Energy company RWE has provided the investment for the installation and deployment. The system is planned to be electrically integrated, certified and located within RWE’s OranjeWind (Hollandse Kust West VII) wind farm off the west coast of the Netherlands.

Before the offshore deployment, the Nautical Sunrise consortium will conduct extensive research and testing to ensure the reliability, survivability, electrical stability and yield of OFS systems. A comprehensive scale-up plan will address the challenges and create opportunities to drive forward the commercialization of OFS systems.

The project will assess the environmental footprint, circularity and full lifecycle sustainability of OFS systems. This assessment will not only cover the demonstrator project but also include multiple GW-scale commercial projects, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the technology’s ecological implications.

Don Hoogendoorn, chief technology officer of SolarDuck, said, “This subsidy allows SolarDuck with its partners to push the environmental boundary of the design and at the same time get an in-depth understanding of the ecological [merit] and reliability of the design.”

Simon Stark, CTO of project lead Dutch Marine Energy Centre (DMEC), added, “We are excited to coordinate the Nautical Sunrise project as one of the flagship initiatives of offshore solar in Europe. We have the chance to address important knowledge gaps around the design and environmental impact of offshore solar, and together with RWE and the OranjeWind consortium we can do so in full alignment and integration with a commercial offshore wind park.”

The project consists of a collaboration of its partners: DMEC, SolarDuck, RWE, Blunova – a Carlo Maresca Group company, Bridon-Bekaert The Ropes Group, Deltares, Belgium’s Hasselt University (UHasselt) and KU Leuven, Oxford PV, SINTEF Industry, SINTEF Ocean, Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC-CERCA) in Spain, Portugal’s INESC TEC and WavEC Offshore Renewables.