Ocergie SAS says its OCG-Data Blue Oracle is now anchored 30 km offshore Leucate, France, in the Occitanie region, one of the pre-selected zones of the Mediterranean Floating Wind Tender (AO6).
OCG-Data Blue Oracle, which is afloat in 95 meters of water depth, is a buoy data acquisition system comprising lidar and other technologies to collect high-resolution metocean and bio-diversity data in anticipation of offshore wind development in the area.
Ocergy, which leads the project partly sponsored by ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency), is joined by strategic partners Skyborn Renewables, Tachysséma Développement, University of Perpignan CREM and Sens of Life. In addition, the scientific committee composed of CRPMEM, Ecocean, Ocean Winds, Semantic-T.S., Chorus, and Bureau Veritas has provided important input to the project.
Ocergy’s major suppliers include Brodosplit for the buoy fabrication, Jifmar for the offshore installation and Vryhof for the anchor and mooring supply. The buoy is fitted with TP Product structural compact flanges and a Vaisala WindCube lidar. The buoy was assembled at the Euroports Marine Renewable Energy terminal in Port-la-Nouvelle, France.
“This key milestone closes the first year of the project, and the scientific teams are excited to embark in the data acquisition and analysis year-long phase, which is expected to provide valuable biodiversity and environmental information,” says Christian Cermelli, president of Ocergie SAS. “In addition, this buoy serves as a one-third scale pilot of our OCG-Wind floating offshore wind foundation, with important return on experience expected to further mature our floating offshore wind design.”
