Gicon floating foundation gets EUR 5.25 million grant

GERMANY: Gicon has been awarded a EUR 5.25 million grant by the north German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to construct and test its SOF floating offshore foundation.

by David Weston 7 May 2014

An impression of Gicon's floating foundation

The engineering company will use the grant from the state's economy ministry to build and test the foundation in the Baltic Sea.

Construction of the SOF foundation will begin on 1 July at a shipyard in Germany, and it will be installed at EnBW's 48.3MW Baltic I project, expected for 2015.

In February, Gicon received a US patent for the foundation. Gicon believes the American market has the potential to be one of the leading markets in offshore wind development.

The foundation can be installed in water depths of 20-500 metres and be towed to its deployment location, making installation more cost-effective.

Gicon tested a 1:25 scale model of the turbine in 2012.