Are you active in the offshore wind industry and does your organisation provide solutions for floating wind farms? Would you like to know what the developments are in the Occitania region (southern France) for floating wind farms? If so, join the innovation mission ‘floating offshore wind in Occitania from 3 to 6 July 2023.

Why Occitania?

France considers the offshore energy sector as an important sector for European strategic autonomy, cooperation should aim at maintaining the value chain in Europe (also for new innovative “floating” technologies). France has the ambition to become a world leader in floating wind farms and the Occitania region is the area where most of the developments in this field are taking place. Two pre-commercial floating wind farms will be built in the next few years and the realisation of the first commercial project with a capacity of 250 megawatts should start in 2030. Port-la-Nouvelle, located southwest of Montpellier, is currently being developed as a dedicated port for the floating wind farms.

Wind’OCC, the cluster organisation for wind energy in the Occitan region, is the catalyst for local offshore wind developments. This organisation is very open to European cooperation, witness the MoU signed between Holland Home of Wind Energy (HHWE) and Wind’OCC, in April 2022.

Focus

This innovation mission focuses on new technologies in the floating wind industry. The main themes of the mission are:

• Integral design and optimisation of wind turbine and floater as one installation;
• Standardisation and industrialisation (especially serial production of floaters);
• Port assembly, transport and installation of the turbines;
• Realisation of floating wind test sites;
• Ecological aspects of floating wind farms.

For whom?

The mission focus particularly on R&D managers, business development managers, CTOs and CEOs of interested companies (startups/scale-ups, SMEs and large companies) active in the floating wind industry and knowledge institutions working on – or involved in – the development of innovation technologies for floating wind farms.

The mission is small-scale with a maximum of 20 participants. We will take in consideration how your expertise matches the focus and purpose of this mission. You will receive final confirmation of your participation after the closing of the application period.

Program

The current draft program provides for visits to the University of Toulouse, the University of Montpellier and Port-la-Nouvelle, where huge floaters are assembled.

The mission will consist of formal and informal networking meetings, presentations and roundtable discussions. There will also be time to pitch your organization. We will define the program in the coming period. We will take into account specific wishes.

Costs

The participant fee for the innovation mission is € 250 excluding VAT per person. This includes: participation in the collective program, transfers to and from program components, lunch and dinners if specified in the program.
Participation does not include: travel and accommodation costs, all individual costs and possible matchmaking costs.

Interest

Are you interested in participating in this innovation mission? Please fill in the online interest form by 15 March 2023.

Organisation

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) is organising this mission on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, in cooperation with the Innovation Attaché network in Paris and NBSO Netherlands Business Support Office in Nantes). The program is being developed in cooperation with HHWE, and the French regional organisation Wind’OCC.

The mission is organised within the framework of Wind and Water Works (WWW). WWW is the platform established by RVO, HHWE, NWEA, NMT and IRO and aims to promote the Dutch offshore wind sector abroad.

More information?

Do you have any questions about this innovation mission? Please contact the department at innovatiemissies@rvo.nl or Arjen Schutten, Managing Director HHWE arjen@hhwe.eu

COVID-19 clause

There is currently no travel advice within the EU on Covid. Should the situation change substantially in the next 3 months, the organisation reserves the right to still cancel the mission.