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The company TouchWind has completed the installation of its floating wind turbine prototype at the Fieldlab Green Economy Westvoorne facilities, located in the Netherlands. This deployment marks the beginning of the in-water field testing phase for the POWER project, whose acronym describes the study of the positive wake effects of turbines with tilted rotors.
Testing of the floating wind turbine prototype in Dutch waters
The research focuses on analyzing how this type of rotor can deflect aerodynamic wakes and capture higher-energy air currents from upper atmospheric layers. Technical managers estimate that the combination of both phenomena will significantly increase power density in future offshore wind farms.
The floating structure uses a mooring system composed of steel and polyester cables attached to counterweighted concrete anchors. To mitigate environmental impact, these anchors integrate 3D-printed artificial reefs by the firm Coastruction, designed to promote local ecosystem development. Monitoring of operational forces is performed using load shackles integrated into the mooring cables themselves.
The testing infrastructure includes a floating meteorological tower previously installed in April 2025. This secondary installation features a similar anchoring scheme, although it does not include load sensors since the structural stresses it supports are minimal.
The positioning and anchoring operations required collaboration from multiple specialized entities. TouchWind and Duc Marine coordinated the overall installation, while the company Peinemann provided lifting equipment to place the structure in the water. Additionally, the research institute MARIN supervised cable tension through real-time analysis of shackle data.
The testing program will extend throughout 2026 to collect precise records on energy performance, platform stability, and mooring resistance. The international POWER consortium comprises the firms TouchWind, MOL, TNO, MARIN, Nidec, and We4Ce, with financial support from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.
Source and photo: TouchWind