At the Floating Wind Days event in Haugesund, Norway, DNV officially awarded the Basic Design certificate to BW Ideol, for the company's 15MW+ floating wind platform.
This certification marks a key milestone in BW Ideol's industrial roadmap and confirms the technical soundness of a platform designed for large-scale deployment. Unveiled during FOWT 2024, BW Ideol has launched an innovative market strategy with the creation of a standardized floating foundation platform designed for 15MW wind turbine generators. This versatile platform is compatible with various WTG original equipment manufacturers within the same range (14 to 16MW) and is currently being scaled up to 22MW. It is also adaptable to a wide range of Metocean conditions, from moderate to more challenging environments. The primary objective of this approach is to support multiple projects from a single production line, thereby leveraging the benefits of standardization and achieving economies of scale.
The newly certified platform builds on BW Ideol's experience with earlier projects whose designs were already certified by leading classification societies - Floatgen (Lloyd's Register, 2016), Hibiki (ClassNK, 2016), Eolmed (Bureau Veritas, 2022) - and paves the way towards generalization of type certification for floating foundations.
Type-certified floating wind platforms, suited to a range of turbine sizes and environmental conditions, are critical to unlocking the full industrial potential of the sector. As floating wind scales up, project developers will need reliable, certified technologies and proven execution capabilities not one-off prototypes.
Paul de la Guérivière, CEO, stated: "This certification is a tangible demonstration of the maturity and the reliability of our technology. BW Ideol offers developers a certified, adaptable, and deployment-ready solution that helps reduce engineering lead times, secure financing, and accelerate permitting processes. This is key in strengthening our value proposition as a trusted partner for commercial floating wind projects."
"We are pleased to support BW Ideol in its floating offshore wind journey. Certification plays a critical role in building trust, reducing risk, and accelerating investment in floating offshore wind. As the industry scales, harmonized standards and qualified concepts will be essential to ensure safety, reliability, and cost-efficiency across global markets. At DNV, we forecast that floating wind could supply more than 200 GW by 2050 a vital contribution to the energy transition and a major step toward a net-zero future," adds Kim Sandgaard-Mørk, Executive Vice President for Renewables Certification at DNV.
