Gazelle Wind Power teams up with Ferrofab for hybrid floating wind platform

Floating offshore wind platform developer Gazelle Wind Power (Dublin, Ireland) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ferrofab (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), an engineering and manufacturing firm, to establish a Center for Manufacturing Excellence at the Ferrofab Jebel Ali facility in the UAE. This Center is being established to manufacture a Gazelle hybrid modular offshore wind platform, based on Gazelle’s proprietary technology, that can reportedly be scaled to support any make and model of wind turbines, including models upwards of 20 megawatts (MW).

“Ferrofab has a reputation for engineering, manufacturing and execution that is needed to bring our technology to the market at the pace we need to address climate change,” Gazelle CEO Jon Salazar says. “While many offshore wind projects originate from the oil and gas industry, Gazelle’s hybrid floating platform is designed solely to accelerate the development of the offshore wind industry and contribute to reducing the levelized cost of electricity [LCOE]. Having a collaborator with experience in both sectors will allow us to deploy our solution and hasten the move to net zero successfully.”

Ferrofab boasts a total of 800,000 square feet of state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Jebel Ali, which is located approximately 40 kilometers southwest of Dubai. The company has extensive experience in engineering and manufacturing offshore and onshore process equipment and structures for the wind, oil and gas industries, which will be leveraged to accelerate the manufacturing process for Gazelle’s floating wind platforms and the assembly and distribution to ports worldwide.

“Based on our past experience in manufacturing offshore structures, Gazelle’s floating platform technology is on track to spur the needed evolution of the offshore wind industry,” Johan Moraes, executive director of Ferrofab FZE, says. “With its innovative design and modular components, the deployment of this solution will be a revolutionary step in the production of renewable energy.”

Over the past year, Gazelle says it has been lining up top-performing partners, all leaders within their respective industries, to advance the implementation of the company’s floating platform system, including MOUs previously signed with VCE, Bridon-Bekaert Ropes Group and Maersk Supply Service. Gazelle also successfully completed its first crowdfunding campaign and named four additional industry leaders to its board of directors.

Gazelle’s hybrid floating wind platform is said to split the “two classical functions” of buoyancy and stability for a lighter and more agile platform than current market designs. It also enables faster deployment in deeper waters, according to the company.