Squid floating wind system wins ABS TRL 7/8 qualification ahead of commercial scale-up

The Squid floating wind system, designed by Encomara and manufactured by Aurora Energy Services, has received Technology Readiness Level 7/8 qualification from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), clearing what Encomara describes as the final step before commercial manufacture at scale.

What the ABS qualification actually means for the Squid floating wind system

TRL 7/8 is not a soft milestone. In the ABS framework, it indicates a technology has been successfully demonstrated at full scale in an operational or near-operational environment. Encomara says that bar has now been met following inshore trials of the mooring and power cable connection system at Ardersier Port, near Inverness.

The ABS qualification follows a product design assessment that Squid received from the same body earlier this year. In sequence, that represents a credible certification pathway: design assessment first, then full-scale operational qualification. The progression matters because floating wind developers and their insurers will want to see exactly this kind of staged, third-party validation before committing capital to a novel connection system.

Ian Donald, Managing Director of Encomara, said: ‘Securing TRL8 status marks the final step in the qualification of our technology ready for deployment. It demonstrates that the Squid system has been successfully proven at full scale and is now ready to move into commercial manufacture.’

The LCOE claim: promising, but worth reading carefully

Encomara is making a substantial cost claim. Modelling studies, supported by Scottish Enterprise and developers, indicate that the Squid system could reduce the levelised cost of energy by up to 20% over the life of a floating wind project. That is the kind of figure that gets finance directors to sit up.

The caveat, though, sits in the language. ‘Could reduce’ and ‘up to 20%’ are doing real work in that sentence. These are modelling outputs, not operational data from a deployed floating wind array. Modelling studies are a legitimate and necessary step in technology development, and the involvement of Scottish Enterprise and unnamed developers lends them some weight. But the 20% figure will need to survive contact with a real project before it anchors any investment case.

The underlying logic is straightforward enough. Floating wind’s commercial challenge is not primarily the turbine technology itself but the complexity and cost of installation, mooring and ongoing operations. Squid targets that pain point directly, aiming to simplify tow-to-port operations by enabling rapid hook-up and disconnection of turbines. Donald framed it plainly: ‘Our “plug and play” design is intended to remove some of the complexity and cost associated with floating wind operations, helping to address one of the key barriers to wider industry investment.’

If the system can genuinely compress the time and specialist vessel requirements involved in connecting and disconnecting floating turbines during tow-to-port operations, the operational carbon and cost savings over a project’s lifetime are plausible. The 20% LCOE reduction claim will be tested when the first commercial deployment produces real numbers.

Context: why floating wind needs this kind of innovation now

Floating wind remains pre-commercial at scale. The technology is broadly accepted as necessary for deeper water sites where fixed-bottom turbines are not viable, but the cost curve has not yet bent far enough to attract the volume of private capital the sector needs. Connection systems that reduce operational complexity sit squarely in the critical path to making projects bankable.

Donald’s statement acknowledged as much, describing the ABS certification as validating ‘that the Squid system can play a significant role in accelerating the commercialisation of floating wind and supporting the level of investment needed to deliver ambitious energy transition targets.’ The qualification does not, on its own, deliver those targets. But it removes one further technical risk from the stack, and in a sector where risk stacking is the primary barrier to investment, that is not nothing.

Encomara says the Squid system is now ready to move into commercial manufacture. The next test is whether a developer signs on to be first.