Rebranded floating wind specialist to target venture capital funding

Vidi Energy, a rebranded FloatWind Ltd venture, plans to raise Series A venture capital funding later this year, as it prepares to develop its floating wind technology in various offshore locations. The initiative follows a successful seed funding round in October 2021.

In an end-of-year statement, the company explained that the rebranding to Vidi Energy is part of a 2022 strategic review. It described itself as a technology and mass-assembly company focused on the rapid development and delivery of ready-to-float wind turbines using lean production techniques.

In a statement, the company noted the high cost of floating wind, currently projected at “upwards of USD 150/MWh”. However, current production methods in the fixed-bottom wind turbine sector are one of the obstacles in floating wind development, because of high construction and installations costs, the company said.

Vidi Energy co-founder and CCO, Nele Andersch, commented: “The name change reflects our core belief that to deliver the [energy] transition, floating wind must look beyond current approaches to assembly and adopt standardisation and automation techniques that have lowered costs in other industries. The new name also emphasises how the business will continue to look forwards and see where we can support the construction process of floating infrastructure in wind and other sectors of the marine energy transition to drive costs down.”