Bekaert Joins Tailwind Floating Wind Moorings Innovation Project

Belgium-based offshore mooring systems specialist Bekaert has joined the Tailwind project, which aims to develop advanced mooring solutions for floating wind industry.

The Tailwind project, launched in January 2024, will aim to deliver advanced station-keeping technologies, designed to maintain the position of floating offshore wind energy farms through innovative mooring lines and anchoring systems.

The development of these technologies is critical to open new paths towards the global effectiveness and sustainability of floating offshore wind farms, driving tangible cost savings while reducing dependency on primary raw materials.

As a steel wire transformation and coating technology company, Bekaert also develops beyond-steel solutions with its Scottish-based synthetic rope manufacturing facilities, and due to its experience in offshore mooring systems, it was invited to join the Tailwind consortium.

“I am very pleased that Bekaert is involved in the Tailwind project that will further enable the growth of floating offshore wind which plays an important role in accelerating the generation of clean, sustainable energy.

“With our track record in mooring systems for offshore oil and gas, we are committed to contributing to enabling the scale-up of more optimal station-keeping concepts and systems for floating offshore wind,” said Christof Dewijngaert, General Manager Synthetics at Bekaert.

Sustainability will be the key enabler for the value creation of the Tailwind project, which is funded by the EU’s Horizon Program.

A wide range of stakeholders will be engaged to investigate the acceptance of potential new technologies to act as a catalyst for increasing affordable wind power in the energy mix.

The Tailwind consortium is composed of NGI – Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (Norway), Technische Universiteit Delft (Netherlands), Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (Denmark), SINTEF Ocean AS (Norway), Fundación Tecnalia Research & Innovation (Spain), Nautilus Floating Solutions (Spain), Bekaert (Belgium), Subsea 7 Norway AS (Norway), Fondazione ICONS (Italy), Clarke Modet Y Compania S.L. (Spain), NKT Cables Group A/S (Denmark), University of Southampton (UK).

Tailwind also targets a significant reduction of the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) produced by floating offshore wind farms thanks to the higher cost-efficiency of the new mooring and anchoring solutions, avoiding bottlenecks and major dependency on the supply chain.