The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine are casting sinister shadows on our society, posing great challenges to economies, which are trying to bounce back with great resilience. 2021 and 2022 will be remembered not only as the starting years of the healing process from the pandemic and rebuilding of economies and communities in a more sustainable way, but also as the year marking a real breakthrough for:

1. European energy independence, to be achieved by energy transition toward renewables, among which the wind industry;

2. the reduction of climate-hazard costs through the implementation of net zero CO2 emission plans all over the world.

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In this context, NEPTUNE aims at providing important impact on the production of clean, affordable and secure energy, for the sustainable development of the European society of the next future, declared by the European Green Deal program [1], confirming the essential wind energy role in achieving net zero emissions. Coherently with the European requests and national post-pandemic recovery plans [2], NEPTUNE focuses on innovative offshore renewable energy technologies and aims at improving the understanding and modelling of the nonlinear phenomena that influence the safety and the operative performance of FOWTs. NEPTUNE results will have a major impact on the technological enhancement of TLP-type FOWTs. The use of multiple approaches (theoretical/numerical and experimental) and their integration will advance the understanding of nonlinear aero-hydro-structural phenomena and their possible exploitation for the design process.

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On the other hand, the prediction of both local and global nonlinear response can be exploited to enhance and control the system performance for the energy extraction. Europe and, especially, the Mediterranean countries are becoming the global technology leaders for floating wind installations, because of their coastal and offshore morphology.

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The technological advancement in the offshore wind sector will require the development of safety, better performing and more economic FOWT structures to be deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. In this context, the NEPTUNE project is focused on TLP-type FOWTs technological solutions, for intermediate/deep waters, such as the Mediterrenean sea, very close to those of the 7Seas Med project. Therefore, relevant applicative impacts will be achieved, also thanks to the collaboration with the “Severini – iLStudio”, the designer of the fixed-bottom wind farm under construction along the Taranto coastline and the 7Seas Med project FOWT farm, that accepted to collaborate on the project through the transfer of the knowledge gained within the project to the construction of new design pathlines.

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In addition, the nonlinear and efficient models developed within NEPTUNE could be used to improve technological solutions, such as TETRASPAR [3] and the NREL SpiderFLOAT. Room for technological innovation is especially seen in the mooring system considering the specific features the Mediterranean Sea. Also, these technological applications will be conducted with the collaboration of the “Severini – iLStudio”.