What it is
SEAWORTHY is an EU-funded research project developing a hybrid offshore platform that integrates wind turbines, wave energy converters, hydrogen production, and energy storage on a single floating structure. The test platform is located in the Canary Islands, one of Europe's most energetic ocean environments. The project combines partners from seven European countries and aims to demonstrate that multi-source ocean energy platforms can achieve higher capacity factors and lower costs than single-technology installations.
Why we picked this
The future of ocean energy is not a single technology but integrated platforms that combine multiple generation sources, storage, and hydrogen production. SEAWORTHY is the first project to test this concept at meaningful scale. By co-locating wind, wave, and hydrogen on one platform, shared infrastructure costs drop, capacity factors increase (different sources peak at different times), and the platform can produce both electricity and green hydrogen for export. This is what ocean energy looks like in 2035.
Key takeaways
- Combined wind-wave platforms achieve capacity factors of 50-60%, compared to 35-45% for offshore wind alone, because wave energy peaks when wind is calm and vice versa.
- On-platform hydrogen production eliminates the need for undersea power cables to shore, the most expensive component of offshore energy installations.
- The Canary Islands test site experiences average wave heights of 1.5-2.5 meters and wind speeds of 7-9 m/s, representing conditions found across much of the world's coastlines.