Multi-use wind and wave offshore platform ends sea trials

The multi-use wind and wave offshore platform prototype, dubbed Aurora, has been decommissioned after one year of sea trials as part of the EU-backed Blue Growth Farm project.

In February 2022, the 1:15 Aurora prototype was fully decommissioned after more than six months of assessments, following its deployment off Reggio Calabria in the Mediterranean.

The platform is part of the Horizon 2020-funded project the Blue Growth Farm, which brings together 13 European partners, and aims to develop and demonstrate an automated, modular and environmentally friendly multi-functional platform for open sea farm installations.

Thanks to Aurora platform trials, the project consortium said it gained valuable insights on platform complexity in terms of stability, aero-hydrodynamic interaction with the scaled wind turbine and coupling induced by the wave energy converter chambers.

The project also shed more light on the optimization of a central protected pool within a platform, designed for hosting an automated aquaculture system capable of producing high quality fish,

In addition, the results of the trials provided input to refined numerical models developed for reliable employment in the full-scale engineering development, according to project partners.

Some of the project partners include RINA, the Natural Ocean Engineering Laboratory (NOEL), University of Strathclyde, Wavenergy.it, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, and Tecnalia.

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