Aikido’s platform at different stages of the installation.

Impression of the upending process on the demo day.

Once installed, the floater must behave like any other structure, and so alongside the novel installation tests, extreme survival conditions of the installed floating wind turbine were conducted to understand extreme motions, accelerations and mooring loads. Results from these tests are used to tune design load calculations so that an economically viable and fit-for-purpose platform can be designed.

There is no question that Aikido’s approach is a step change from the norm for offshore structures, let alone for the offshore wind industry itself. At the end of the two-week test campaign stakeholders across the industry visited to witness the innovative installation process and discuss the project with Aikido and MARIN. Supported by the results of the model tests at MARIN, Aikido has recently gained funding to build a demonstrator.

Aikido Technologies is designing a floating wind concept that is optimised to handle the installation and logistics challenges faced by the industry.

As the floating wind industry moves towards commercial projects, there is a renewed focus on identifying technologies that can support the industrialisation of this growing sector.

While the west coast of America has huge wind resources and deep waters that make floating wind a favourable energy technology, bridges that surround many of the suitable supply ports have been designed around containerships. A floating wind turbine can require 3-4 times the typical bridge clearance of around 60 m, and with deeper draughts and greater widths than containerships, existing navigation channels may also be unsuitable.

Aikido’s pioneering platform is designed to overcome these restrictions. It starts out as a folded-up platform, with dimensions similar to a containership, but once it has cleared the port restrictions, the platform is upended with the help of a carefully controlled ballasting procedure to become a very stable semi-submersible platform.  This unique approach can be performed with the turbine nacelle and blades in place, removing the need for heavy lift operations offshore which is a challenge faced by fixed and floating wind industries, as turbines are starting to reach the limits of offshore crane heights.

Sam Kanner (CEO Aikido technologies)

The Space@Sea project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 774253.

“The upending idea came from us living and working in the Bay Area for 10+ years, thinking about we could deploy floating offshore wind structures from the numerous ports around the San Francisco Bay.
The ‘folded’ platform reduces air draught and beam, but it also has tremendous benefits during final assembly, load-out and transportation. We aim to be the best-in-class design for floating wind markets around the world.

The tests at MARIN were very helpful in proving the concept, providing critical feedback to our engineers. We have started to work with fabricators on our AO15 design, which is designed to support 15 MW+ wind turbines. Their feedback is crucial to ensuring the platform is designed in a manner for mass production. As part of the FLOWIN project (by the US DoE) we have also come up with a detailed project execution plan for a commercial-scale floating wind farm in the US—detailing how the components of the platform are fabricated and transported, where final assembly can take place, the equipment that’s required, what the required lifts and steps are, etc. so that we can estimate costs and throughput. Our target is to meet the installation schedule in the fixed-bottom industry.

I think in general, the concept is well received as it can solve many well-known challenges within the floating wind industry. The industry has been upending spars for decades and Equinor did it in their Hywind Scotland project. Certainly, everyone wants to see this concept proven in the ‘real-world’ and the tests at MARIN were the first step in achieving this goal.”

In May 2023 Aikido Technologies visited MARIN for the second time in two years, previously having worked with MARIN during the proof-of-concept stage. This new project is funded through Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Fellowship program and aims to demonstrate their new platform design and installation process.

Collaborating closely together with regular design meetings and visits, the Concept Basin tests kicked off the Basin Programme to finalise the installation procedure and then the model was moved into the Offshore Basin. Results from the model tests were used to validate Aikido’s numerical models and help them move forwards in the design process. The installation process was successful, and the team were able to get a great insight into how different wave climates influenced the process.