SolarDuck tests updated platform design at MARIN’s Offshore Basin

Dutch-Norwegian firm SolarDuck has conducted basin tests for its updated floating solar platform design at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN). 

According to SolarDuck, the tests are part of the DEI+ Merganser project consortium and took place at MARIN’s Offshore Basin, a facility designed to simulate wind and wave conditions for scale model experiments.

“These model tests provide insights into the dynamic behavior of our platforms and ensure their ability to withstand the harsh offshore conditions where they will be deployed,” said Rahul Chitteth Ramachandran, SolarDuck’s Hydrodynamic Specialist.

The company has said that it gaining valuable insights from the tests. Also, SolarDuck noted planning to test 54 interconnected platforms in the basin before summer.

MARIN’s Offshore Basin is a facility made to simulate and test the behavior of offshore structures which are fixed, moored, or controlled by dynamic positioning, in waves, wind, and current. The basin measures 45 m x 36 m x10.2 m. According to MARIN, It is fitted with a pit with an extra depth of 20 meters and a diameter of 5 meters to install systems up to 3000 meters depth (prototype).

The DEI+ Merganser project includes collaboration with MARIN, TNO, Deltares, TU Delft’s Technology, Policy and Management department, and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.

Merganser will be an operational laboratory for SolarDuck, which together with consortium partners will gather relevant data, such as platform motions, energy output, and life below the water surface.

Merganser, with a peak capacity of 0.5 MWp is located about 12 kilometers off Scheveningen’s coast. The scalable design comprises six interconnected platforms designed to endure severe offshore conditions. 

In July 2024, SolarDuck in partnership with offshore wind developer RWE, installed its offshore photovoltaic (OFPV) project, Merganser, at the North Sea Farmers offshore test site in the Dutch North Sea.

Over the next two years, Merganser will be remotely monitored using over 180 sensors to track structural, connector, mooring, and electrical performance to further investigate the technology. Also, the Dutch research institute Deltares will conduct an extensive ecological impact assessment of the floating solar project.

In August 2024, SolarDuck unveiled that the Teal OFPV demonstration plant in Tokyo Bay, Japan, had endured its first severe weather test.