How can we reduce the cost of floating wind platforms and ensure their integrity in 30 years? Less weight, better distributed and more energy.

Our innovative tool, Pandilo, offers precise calculations of the forces acting on every square centimetre of these massive structures, enabling optimized designs. This results in substantial savings in steel and concrete, without compromising safety, leading to lower costs and a greater contribution to clean energy.

Floating wind turbines hold immense potential for harnessing clean energy from offshore locations. However, their massive size and the high cost of materials pose significant challenges. To make these structures economically viable, it is imperative to optimize their design and weight, manufacturing and installation, while guaranteeing a 30-year useful life.

One of the critical factors influencing the design and performance of floating wind turbines is the hydrodynamic forces exerted on their floaters. Accurately calculating these forces is essential for ensuring floater’s structural integrity. Unfortunately, existing computational methods tend to be overly conservative or poorly detailed in terms of geometries, accuracy or computational efficiency, particularly when combining complex hydrodynamic phenomena and the aerodynamic loads from the wind turbine.

To address these challenges, CENER’s team has developed a groundbreaking new tool capable of precisely calculating the hydrodynamic pressures acting on floating wind turbine structures. Pandilo overcomes the limitations of previous methods by incorporating advanced numerical techniques and breaks down the different components of hydrodynamic forces. Computation time is notably lower than other methodologies, allowing the integration of coupled simulation results into a simple interface for the structural design and optimization of the floater.

Starting from the structural detailed verification, the design can be optimized and the overall weight of wind floaters reduced, contributing to lower construction and operational costs.

In conclusion, Pandilo offers a significant advancement in the design and optimization of floating wind turbines. By providing accurate and efficient hydrodynamic calculations, it enables the development of more robust, reliable, and cost-competitive structures. As the demand for renewable energy continues to grow, this technology plays a vital role in unlocking the full potential of offshore wind power.