Netherlands-based Oceans of Energy is joined by 15 European partners to launch the development of a standardized offshore solar building block in the North Sea, nestled within 4 offshore wind turbines.
Through this EU Joint Industry Project abbreviated as BAMBOO (short for Build scAlable Modular Bamboo-inspired Offshore sOlar systems), the partners aim to scale up offshore solar PV farms to standard formats of 150 MW, that will help roll out GW-scale farms in the future.
Italian certification and engineering firm RINA along with ABS, Aquatera Ltd, Aquatera Atlantico, and WavEC are the 5 technical and environmental consultancies supporting the project.
Other partners include 4 technology developers namely Solarge, TKF, Pauwels Transformers, SolarCleano; 3 testing laboratories of MARIN, Fraunhofer CSP, SIRRIS; marine science-policy think-tank European Marine Board and offshore wind farm developer Vattenfall as a potential client for implementation.
According to Oceans of Energy, through BAMBOO they aim to mature the technologies to attract funds for the first-of-a-kind 100-200 MW offshore solar farm at a Vattenfall offshore wind farm before the turn of the decade. The location of the project is yet to be decided.
The idea is to place offshore solar farms within offshore wind farms to make use of the available sea space, increase electricity output and ensure continuous power supply over the seasons.
Use of the same electricity infrastructure for both energy generating technologies will bring down costs for green electricity production, it adds.
The Dutch company says these 'building blocks' are an attempt to make such projects a new standard in offshore energy farms.
"This project will contribute to enable feasible business cases of solar renewable energy offshore," said Carbon Reduction Excellence Executive Vice President of RINA, Andrea Bombardi. It will pioneer the development of a new predictive yield model for the technology, added Bombardi.
Oceans of Energy has designed a high wave offshore solar farm system, receiving an approval in principle (AiP) for its system design from France's Bureau Veritas in January 2023. In April last year, it was picked by CrossWind to install and operate solar panels within the 759 MW Hollandse Kust Noord Offshore Wind Park of Shell and Eneco, off the Dutch coast (see Offshore Floating Solar Farm In Netherlands).