SUREWAVE will develop and test an innovative concept of Floating Photo-Voltaic (FPV) system consisting of an external floating breakwater structure acting as a protection against severe wave-wind-current loads on the FPV modules, allowing increased operational availability and energy output, thus unlocking the massive deployment of Offshore FPV. It will be focused on the research for securing optimal behaviour at aero & hydrodynamic and structural integrity level of the external breakwater, the internal FPV modular structure, the connections, the mooring and anchoring and the whole FPV system, complying with mechanical, electrical (maximizing energy output) and cost-efficiency requirements, ensuring high lifetime of critical components, high reliability of the system and easy, quick and cost-efficient, construction, installation and O&M of the whole system. This will require: 1) the development of novel circular concrete material solutions for the breakwater, cost-effective, easy to produce and with high mechanical, physical and durability properties and low CO2 footprint. 2) the development of an advanced predictive computational modelling and simulation framework: coupled aero & hydrodynamic modelling, Structural integrity modelling, material properties modelling and Structural Health Management to reduce CAPEX and OPEX; 3) the design and implementation of an optimal testing and validation methodology for offshore FPV system to achieve TRL5, including lab testing, basin-model testing and marine environment testing of critical components assuring high resilience to corrosion and biofouling. Maximum advantage of existing expertise will be taken from experts in: offshore wind floating structures, material and phenomena modelling (SINTEF, MARIN, CEIT), design and installation of FPV in calm waters (SIS), floating solutions (CLEMENT), circular structural and non-structural materials (ACC) and in social, environmental and economic assessment (IFEU).

Floating PV, if it is to aid the transition to a climate-neutral and resilient society and contribute towards the EU policy goals, must overcome 3 challenges that are also high-lighted in the Work Programme. FPV must prove its sustainability, by demonstrating low impact on biodiversity and satisfy end-of-life requirements, its longevity and reliability by demonstrating system components that satisfy structural and functional requirements for the entire lifecycle, and its affordability, by reducing the LCOE from FPV power plants. These are the challenges that the objectives of SuRE seek to overcome. Activities are structured into 3 generalizable topics, SUstainability, Reliability, and Efficiency, which gives SuRE FPV its name, and are designed to advance the entire FPV industry. We will further work with concrete technology developments for 3 leading European FPV technologies to improve their design, sustainability, cost-competitiveness and application range. The three FPV technology providers are Ciel et Terre (CTI), who have installed 650 MW globally, Zimmermann PV-Steel Group (ZIM), who is dominating the European FPV market, and Sunlit Sea (Sunlit) who is providing a innovative FPV solution for off-shore deployment. CTI has recently prototyped a new floater design, which will be developed and tested in SuRE, first 50 kW, then on 5 MW scale. ZIM aims to expand their technology to higher sea states, and will build a 5 MW based on the developments in floater-, connection- and anchoring- technology in SuRE. Sunlit are about to scale up their FPV technology and see potential for large reductions in cost and CO2 footprint through the activities planned in SuRE. They will build a smaller, but still commercially relevant, pilot of 100 on the Norwegian cost. Ultimately, SuRE will provide both cost-efficient and sustainable new FPV technologies and generalizable knowledge, thereby expanding the potential application areas without environmental sacrifices.