Gazelle Wind Power

Gazelle Wind Power is a Dublin-based company that has developed a modular floating offshore wind platform. The company's third-generation technology, unveiled in April 2023 at WindEurope in Copenhagen, features a lightweight and cost-effective design aimed at addressing challenges faced by the offshore wind industry, including high costs, supply chain bottlenecks, and environmental sustainability concerns.

The platform's innovative design incorporates a patented dynamic mooring system that eliminates pitch and balance movement caused by external forces such as wind, waves, and tides. This system utilizes three vertical mooring lines attached to pivoting arms and a counterweight, resulting in improved turbine operational efficiency. The modular nature of the platform enables scalable and adaptable configurations, making it a more affordable and accessible solution for deep water deployment.

Compared to conventional semi-submersible designs, Gazelle Wind Power's platform offers a 30% cost reduction and significant material savings. For instance, a 1-gigawatt offshore wind farm utilizing Gazelle's platform would save 71,000 tonnes of steel and reduce emissions by approximately 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide as of April 2023. The platform's components can be fabricated cost-effectively in shipyards and transported to assembly ports adjacent to wind farm sites for final assembly.

In December 2023, Gazelle Wind Power formed a partnership with Tugdock, a UK-based company that developed the world's first road-transportable floating dry dock, known as the Tugdock Submersible Platform. This collaboration aims to co-develop a modular offshore wind assembly system, leveraging Tugdock's patented technology to overcome port constraints and enable efficient platform assembly and launch.

The first project under this partnership is set to be the Molise Offshore Wind Farm in the Adriatic Sea, Italy, where the combined technologies will be utilized to install 70 turbines with a total capacity of 1.05 gigawatts. The Molise Offshore Wind Farm, spanning an area of 219 square kilometers, will have turbines located in waters with depths ranging from 88 to 126 meters. The first platform is scheduled for launch in January 2028.