Santiago de Guzmán, Technical Director of Brezo Energy: “The support of the CDTI and the FEDER funds has been a real accelerator for our technology in floating offshore wind”

In a context in which the energy transition requires increasingly efficient, scalable solutions adapted to geographical particularities, floating offshore wind is shaping up as one of the great technological bets of the coming decades. In this emerging field, the Spanish company Brezo Energy is working to position itself as a relevant player through the development of its CROWN FW® technology, a floating concrete platform designed to transform the way in which wind farms are generated and deployed on the high seas.

At the head of the technical direction, Santiago de Guzmán explains that the company was born with a clear technological and industrial vocation. “Brezo Energy has its origins in a patent developed within Seaplace, an engineering company dedicated to naval and offshore design. We are a spin-off created in 2021 with the aim of commercializing and continuing to develop CROWN FW® technology,” he says. Since then, the company has been consolidating a highly specialized team —currently made up of 18 professionals— in which, as he himself recognizes, innovation is a transversal task: “Although there is a formal R&D structure, in reality the whole team is more or less involved in the developments. We are a technology-based company and our day to day revolves around research.”

Innovating to open up the market

The development of solutions for floating offshore wind involves moving in a still incipient terrain, where the rules of the market are in full construction. Not in vain, this is an industry that has not yet reached its commercial deployment on a large scale. “We are talking about an emerging market at a global level, which is still to be developed in Spain. Our projects are international, mainly in Europe — France, the United Kingdom, Norway — and also in Asia,” explains De Guzmán.

In this context, Brezo Energy has focused its activity on advanced engineering and consulting services, while continuing to refine its own technology. The objective is clear: to consolidate a competitive solution in technical and economic terms that allows the leap to industrialization. “Our focus is on mass production. We need to run projects to validate our estimates of performance, times and costs. If we do, we believe that our product has great potential to achieve a relevant market share.”

Design for industrialization

At the heart of this strategy is CROWN FW®, a floating platform that, according to its technical director, introduces a differential philosophy in the design of this type of infrastructure. “I would say that our main innovations are simplicity and obsession with industrialization. It is not easy to conceive of a product that, being simple, solves the great challenges of floating wind: reducing the cost of energy, improving production rates and taking advantage of the existing supply chain,” he says.

Unlike other solutions, this technology is committed to a flexible construction model that allows its manufacture both in dry and on shore, with a lower need for specific infrastructures and higher production rates. “Our platform is significantly cheaper than others in development and enables local manufacturing, which can be key to large-scale deployment.”

But beyond the economic advantages, the floating wind is presented in many cases as a technological need. “In countries like Spain, where there is no large continental shelf, the depth of the sea makes it unfeasible to install fixed structures. Floating wind is not just an alternative, it is an enabling technology”, he stresses.

CROWN FW® Technology Concept Image

The challenge of validating the new

One of the great challenges facing the sector — and, in particular, solutions such as CROWN FW® — is technological validation in an environment where there are no consolidated references yet. In this regard, Brezo Energy has opted for an approach based on experimentation and certification.

“In technological development, the most efficient tools to advance market penetration are certification and validation through testing,” explains De Guzmán. The difficulty, however, is that demonstration projects on a real scale require very high investments. “We are talking about tens of millions of euros, so certification becomes the most efficient way to reduce uncertainties and validate both methodology and costs.”

To date, the company has carried out five test campaigns in different hydrodynamic channels, accumulating thousands of tests that have allowed it to calibrate its numerical models and improve the behavior of the platform against real conditions of wind, waves and currents. “One of the greatest technological challenges is precisely to achieve models that accurately reproduce that dynamic behavior. Next year we will return to the testing channel to further refine our tools.”

Breaking inertia in the industry

Beyond the technical challenges, the technical director of Brezo Energy points to a less visible, but equally decisive barrier: resistance to change within the sector itself. “If I had to highlight a great challenge, I would say that it is breaking with the dogmas inherited from other industries. Changing the story is always complicated,” he says.

In his opinion, there is a tendency to extrapolate solutions from terrestrial wind or fixed offshore wind to floating wind, without taking into account that these are different technological leaps. “Convincing customers requires an effort that is often underestimated.”

In this process, collaboration with other ecosystem actors is essential, especially with turbine manufacturers, whose role is key in any wind farm. “Without this collaboration it is not possible to advance the integration of turbines on floating platforms, and therefore the market does not prosper.” In this regard, Brezo Energy has managed to establish alliances with some of the leading manufacturers worldwide, which has allowed significant progress to be made in the development of integrated solutions.

Certification: key to marketing

The CROWN FW® technology certification project, supported by the CDTI Innovation and co-financed by the European FEDER funds, represents, in this context, a strategic milestone for the company. It not only allows to validate the solution from a technical point of view, but also to reduce the perception of risk between customers and investors.

“This project is fundamental to our technological development strategy. It will allow us to take the next step in the certification of the technology and its industrialization process,” says De Guzmán, who does not hesitate to describe the support received as determining: “The granting of this CDTI assistance has provided an impetus for our technology. We can say it was a real accelerator.”

In his own words, “the program has reliably met the goal for which it was designed,” allowing the company to move faster in a highly competitive and demanding environment.

CROWN FW® Technology Concept Image

A long-term bet

Despite the advances, the development of floating offshore wind continues to be a long-distance race. Forecasts indicate that the first large-scale commercial projects will not arrive until the next decade, with a full deployment that could extend until 2050.

“We are at a very early stage. If by then SMEs like us have managed to implement viable solutions thanks to the impetus of the CDTI, ERDF funds and other national and international bodies, we will have a real opportunity to position ourselves,” says De Guzmán.

In this regard, it highlights the importance of maintaining institutional and financial support for the innovative ecosystem: “In the meantime, we will continue to need all the help that Europe and our funding agencies can build.”

Objectives for the future

With an eye on the next five years, Brezo Energy hopes to achieve one of its great objectives: to have a fully certified technology that allows it to enter the market. “This is a very important milestone, because it opens the door to marketing,” he says.

From there, the ambition is clear: to turn CROWN FW® into a benchmark within the floating wind sector. “We firmly believe that our technology has everything we need to change the market. If we achieve fast and agile penetration, it can become a standard both internationally and nationally.”

The road, he admits, is not without uncertainties. But it is also full of opportunities for those, like Brezo Energy, who are committed to innovation from the ground up. Because, in a market that is yet to be built, the technological decisions made today will mark the energy direction of tomorrow.

CDTI Innovation

The Center for Technological Development and Innovation, CDTI E.P.E. It is the innovation agency of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, whose objective is the promotion of technological innovation in the business environment. The mission of the CDTI is to ensure that the Spanish business fabric generates and transforms scientific and technical knowledge into globally competitive, sustainable and inclusive growth. In 2025, within the framework of the Strategic Plan 2024-2027, the CDTI provided more than 2 billion euros of support to Spanish companies and startups.

 
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