Four startups win floating offshore wind deals in NOW Accelerator

These are the first winners in the NOW Accelerator by Norwegian Offshore Wind, which sought new solutions for the floating offshore wind industry, focusing on flexibility, scalability, low maintenance, and longevity. This accelerator is Norway’s first of it’s kind, aiming to drive innovation forward in the global offshore wind industry. 

Seven pioneering startups and scaleups had been selected to present at Norway’s first offshore wind accelerator. Presentations were made to leading offshore wind companies Å Energi, Corio and Seaway 7 at this year’s Floating Wind Days which took place on 29 and 30 May.

-It has been an incredible journey to witness the innovative power of collaboration between our industry partners and startups. The NOW Accelerator is about challenging the status quo and creating groundbreaking solutions that can shape the future of the floating wind sector. Thanks to our industry partners and the Open Innovation Platform Wazoku, we can scale and get the best startups globally to be involved. We are immensely proud of today's winners, who represent the future of sustainable solutions," said Narve Hansen, Manager of NOW Accelerator.

NOW Accelerator bridges the collaboration between startups and industry partners through innovation scale-up Wazoku, which provides its Platform and Crowd to facilitate an innovation eco-system. Its Crowd comprises more than 700,000 expert problem solvers, including engineers, technologists, start-ups, and academia that over the years have helped solved 2,500+ challenges. 

-Our Crowd is the most advanced in the world at solving this type of challenge, and it was fascinating to see such cutting-edge solutions revealed at Floating Wind Days, said Schønning Eysturoy, Senior Director of Innovation Ecosystems at Wazoku, and adds that all the startups were excellent, but the four selected were worthy winners.

Industry challenges

The NOW Accelerator journey began on March 14th 2024, when Å Energi and Corio launched the first Open Innovation Challenge, targeting "Floating Offshore Wind-Safe Solutions for Black Swan Events." This challenge called for sustainability startups to propose solutions that prioritize environmental and human safety, as well as financial stability and operational efficiency in the offshore wind sector.

-We received a large number of solution proposals for our challenge and following a comprehensive evaluation process, we have concluded with three solutions meeting the challenge requirements the best,” said Roberts Petrovics, Senior Floating Wind Specialist Corio Generation on behalf of Corio and Å Energ, and adds:

-The three solutions show great potential for deployment in floating wind, as well as other industries. Furthermore, the three solutions are diverse and show great ingenuity by their developers.”

Additionally, Seaway 7 introduced an initiative focused on advancing Floating Offshore Wind (FOW) Mooring & Dynamic Cable infrastructure.

-We were pleased to have received responses from many startups and scaleups with interesting solutions that could unlock further optimization of mooring and dynamic cables for floating offshore wind,” said Helge Myrvold from Seaway 7. 

The winners of the challenges presented their ideas on the main stage at the industry flagship event Floating Wind Days in Haugesund, where more than 750 industry representatives from all over the world participated. 

-These innovative solutions represent a significant step forward in addressing some of the critical challenges faced by the floating offshore wind sector,” said Narve Hansen, Manager of NOW Accelerator.