April 2021, Moreld presented the launch of Moreld Ocean Wind, an independent technology, product, and solutions provider for the Floating Offshore Wind Industry. Simultaneously Moreld also announced a major investment in Ocergy Inc. (Ocergy), together with Chevron Technology Ventures. Ocergy is a design and technology company that provides sustainable offshore solutions through the OCG-Wind design, a Floating Wind foundation technology. OCG-Wind is a competitive semi-submersible hull designed with robust industrialization processes and tailored for the next generation of large offshore turbines. The innovative hull joins the 4 interconnected columns using simple trusses and pre-tensioned tendons. The tensegrity structure is designed to be lightweight, a necessity to reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCOE).

The OCG-Wind design incorporates an innovative trim and ballast system that ensure a very low draft when along quayside and keep the platform horizontal during operations, allowing structural optimizations and improving the turbine energy yield. OCG-Wind is tailored towards ease of industrialization to bring flexibility in fabrication as the foundation is modular and allows structural parts to be manufactured simultaneously at factories in various countries and shipped to the marshalling port for final assembly. The solution also increase the use of a local supply chain in the project fabrication life cycle. Many of the technologies implemented in the OCG-Wind solution are already known from the O&G industry but applied in a new and innovative way.

Ocergy was founded in 2019 and develops sustainable offshore solutions that contribute to solving climate change by reducing our carbon footprint and enabling the harvesting of renewable energies. The company’s executives, Alexia Aubault, Christian Cermelli and Dominique Roddier are recognized in the floating offshore wind industry and were recently awarded the prestigious 2020 ASME Sperry Award, “a recognition for the development of floating structures for offshore wind turbines.” The Cooperation Agreement signed between Ocergy and Moreld Ocean Wind sets a strong foundation for executing commercial-scale projects. The partnership integrates one of the most promising OFW technologies in the world with the strong EPCI leadership to develop a fully industrialized supply chain in Norway and other strategic regions worldwide.

Both the model test and Approval in Principle has been achieved and currently both an OCG-Wind pilot and a pre-commercial project are commencing into FEED this year. Even if the TRL level of the technology theoretically is about 4 the actual is considered greater by the industry given the experience of the players and the fact that the Commercial Readiness Level is higher. As it stands today the pilot will be in the water in 2025 and the pre-commercial floaters will be in the water in 2027.

The OCG-Wind is a cost-efficient floating wind turbine foundation created for industrial-scale projects. Its advanced design supports the latest generation of offshore wind turbines. The Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) is minimized by the low weight (<200 tons/MW) of the hull and shallow draft at along the quayside (<10m) enabling the use of local port infrastructure. The OCG-Wind is based on a modular approach allowing flexibility in fabrication and maximizing the use of the existing local supply chain, whilst reducing quayside and offshore operations to allow units to be installed and fully commissioned at a rate of two per week. The industrialization potential is 30-35 units (equivalent to 600-700MW installed capacity) loaded out from one marshalling site in one installation season.

Due to the light weight of the floater the carbon footprint of the floater is exceptionally low compared to other players as it has knock-on effects on steel production/fabrication, transport to the marshalling site, and the towing and installation operations. Also, the recycling potential is large for a floater made from steel material