The Space@Sea project aims to develop multi-use platforms with the objective to develop safe and cost efficient deck space at sea. Due to the increasing population and scarce usable space on land, there is an increasing need for sustainable food and renewable energy from the ocean. In the future these will be supplied more and more by fish- and seaweed farms and ocean energy(floating) wind turbines. There are also geographical locations where additional housing or logistic hubs are needed. All these developments need a flexible and scalable concept that can support a multitude of activities at sea. Space@Sea consists of a group of companies, research institutes and universities that will develop a modular concept for multi-use platforms. Standardised floaters that can be produced at low cost will form the basis. The approach will reduce the cost through standardisation in a similar way that containers reduced the cost of transport in the past. Each floater can support a different function, such as: housing, renewable energy hub, aquafarming (seaweed, algae and fish farms) and logistics equipment. By combining the applications in different ways, Space@Sea will form islands according to the specifications for the location and function at hand. Three specific islands will be validated and demonstrated as part of Space@Sea: An energy hub in the North Sea, aquaculture in the Mediterranean and a floating logistics hub in the Black Sea. To develop a safe and economically viable floating island, a floater need to be developed that can meet the requirements of the various applications and environmental conditions. At the same time these requirements will be brought together into a standardized design. Technology developments are required for the floater, the shared mooring system, coupling between the floaters and application specific developments. The Space@Sea consortium aims to overcome these challenges for a sustainable and cost efficient development of our oceans.

The importance of an increased exploitation of renewable energy sources is highlighted by the recent geo-political events with their impact on energy security and pricing, together with the global efforts to mitigate the anthropogenic climate change. Floating offshore wind, with its tremendous potential, will play an important role in the future to achieve the European Commission’s ambitious goals towards a climate-neutral energy transition. However, the required expansion of floating offshore wind capacity to achieve, e.g., the EU’s SET Plan targets, challenges the goal to protect and preserve bio-diversity (habitats and species) in the EU sea basins as set forth, e.g., by the Mission Healthy oceans. The INF4INiTY project (INtegrated designs for Future Floating oFFshore wINd farm TechnologY) aims to support the solution of this challenge. By developing critical technologies for the offshore wind farm of the future which enable balancing human needs (clean energy) with nature’s and society’s demands (decreased negative environmental and social impact). In particular, INF4INiTY provides two major technology innovations: an innovative nature inclusive design for gravity anchors and their associated scour protection system and (2) an innovative primary artificial reef structure combined with the floating structure of a floating offshore wind turbine. To that end, INF4INiTY combines world class numerical modelling and experimental analysis expertise with leading industrial technology development. Being immersed in a holistic techno-environomic, multi-level, multi-objective optimisation framework, INF4INiTY’s technology development results in truly innovative, economically viable, and sustainable solutions for the current techno-socio-enviro-economic challenges of the floating offshore wind industry.