Infra Dig – the podcast service run by IJGlobal – once again steps across The Pond for a fireside chat with an expert on offshore wind who has made the switch from fixed foundation to floating.

IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville sits down with Álvaro Ortega who recently started a new role as CFO at Gazelle Wind Power – a company with interesting ambitions for floating offshore wind farms (FLOW).

Álvaro launches with his decision to join Gazelle and speaks about the company’s revolutionary design that slashes costs from reduced steel and concrete requirements.

You can access this latest episode on Apple Podcasts and through Player FM. It is also available across a host of other platforms.

However, given his experience delivering the 800MW Vineyard Wind I – the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the US – conversation switches from floating to fixed.

Álvaro says of his new role: “Floating foundations and mooring systems are probably 40% of the cost of these projects. We have old, legacy platforms that require a lot of steel and, not only that, the port infrastructure that you need in order to deploy them is massive... requiring billions of dollars of investment to adapt the ports to that technology.

"With Gazelle, we are talking about a completely different concept. It is based on the oil and gas industry refurbished, like others are. In this case, it is based on maritime experience... which is a completely different approach to what has been done so far."

Álvaro gives a run-down on the Gazelle offering and how it seeks to revolutionise deep-water wind farm delivery, but conversation also brings in his experience as CFO at Vineyard Wind.

"It was super-exciting," says Álvaro. "When I was at Vineyard Wind, we faced challenges with the federal administration at the time to get the permit in place. But we were able to navigate those waters and it was good timing for Vineyard because we were able to reach financial close in September of 2021 when things were still stable in the sense of interest rates and commodity cots, and that is critical for any developer."

To hear about Gazelle’s international plans to roll out its floating solution to offshore wind farms in deeper water as well as Álvaro’s experience on Vineyard Wind I – in addition to a host of other podcasts – tune into this latest episode and trawl the archive that dates back to early 2022.