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oday, it’s acknowledged that the vast po- tential for offshore wind extends beyond the reach of traditional fxed-bottom

GAZELLE PREPARES FOR A units, and conservative estimates call for 300 GW of foating offshore wind by 2050, according to Gazelle CFO Alvaro

Ortega. “This is just foating, so that is the massive opportunity for Gazelle.”

T

As the advent of fxed offshore wind is still in its ado-

FLOATING WIND FUTURE lescence, talk increasingly turns toward foating offshore wind, a technology and market that was, for the most part, only recently born. “Waters more than 60 meters deep require [a foating wind solution], said Ortega, “it cannot be bottom-fxed

As offshore wind power [at that depth].” spreads globally, it’s

When talk turns to foating wind, there are many long- established technologies and companies in the foating off- widely acknowledged that shore oil and gas industry that will translate to foating the maturing of floating wind. However, it’s not an exact match, and the key will be to maximize effciencies of the platform and its founda- wind power platforms will tion, which account for 30 - 40% of the cost.

exponentially increase the

Gazelle is banking on its modular solution, which Orte- ga says should represent a 30% reduced platform cost ver- availability of resources, as sus the semi-submersibles on the market today. “We are the majority of wind power targeting 75% less of mooring length compared. So less mooring length, less materials will be used.” lies outside the installation

GAZELLE TODAY zone of fixed systems. Enter

By Ortega’s estimation, Gazelle is racing to bring its so-

Gazelle Wind Power, which lution to bear, as it is currently in its fourth round of fund- ing and just completing prototype, small-scale basin tests offers a compelling, modular at the Imperial College in London, in Plymouth, England engineered solution and value as well as in Northern Spain. “So far, the results at a very small scale have been successful. So our next steps is to de- proposition to the market. velop and to deploy the pilot, and we are already working

Newly minted Gazelle CFO on that, aiming for deployment by the end of 2024 off the coast of Portugal, using private equity but also looking for

Alvaro Ortega discusses public grants, too.” the outlook for Gazelle in the

Gazelle is banking on its design as the key differentia- tor in the foating wind sector, a design that is modular – offshore floating wind sector.

making it easier to build, transport and deploy – as well as a design that offers signifcant reductions in some critical cost and environmental impact areas.

Last year Gazelle unveiled its next generation technol-

By Greg Trauthwein ogy, an enhanced design that further refned the company’s solution to address the primary challenges facing the off- shore wind industry – cost, supply chain bottlenecks and january/february 2024 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 47