In this article, we introduce the speakers who will be presenting at the “Designing the Future of Floating Offshore Wind: Innovation, Sustainability, and Societal Impact” side event during Wind Europe 2026. Find all the details about this key event for our wind energy cluster: FLOATFARM at Wind Europe 2026 in Madrid – Floatfarm
Speakers presentation
Robert Behrens de Luna is a researcher in the Numerical Wind Energy Group at Technische Universität Berlin, where his work focuses on aeroelasticity and control co-design optimization in the context of floating offshore wind energy. Within FLOATFARM, he leads Work Package which takes a holistic view of how the various new technologies developed within the project interact with the full system and how they can collectively contribute to the objective of meaningfully advancing floating offshore wind. LinkedIn profile
Gael Verao, graduated from A Coruña University with a B.Sc in Civil Engineering (2013) and obtained a M.Sc. in Marine Renewable Energy (2014) from Plymouth University. In 2019, Gael received a PhD from Ghent University, with a thesis focused on numerical modelling of wave energy converters arrays. Later Gael worked on the MSCA-IF project ISLINGTON studying cable trenching of floating offshore wind turbines. Currently, Gael works as the project coordinator of the INF4INiTY project. LinkedIn profile
Aligi Foglia is a Lead Geotechnical Engineer with a broad background spanning consultancy, academic research, and teaching. His work brings together analytical insight and practical design experience, with a strong focus on soil–structure interaction and foundation performance. His expertise includes analytical and numerical modelling of piled and shallow foundations, as well as physical modelling of foundation systems for offshore wind turbines. Currently, Aligi co-leads the TAILWIND research project at NGI. LinkedIn profile
Balram Panjwani is a Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF with over 15 years of experience in offshore wind energy and system modelling. He holds a PhD and specialises in the integration of large-scale wind energy systems. His work focuses on improving performance, reliability and cost-efficiency of next-generation offshore wind technologies. As coordinator of the MADE4WIND Project, he leads multidisciplinary research activities, fostering collaboration between academia and industry to accelerate the deployment of scalable floating wind solutions. LinkedIn profile
Moderators presentation
Alessandro Bianchini is an Associate Professor at the University of Florence. He is an expert in wind turbine aerodynamics. He is the leader of WP1 and will also be involved WP7 and in all the dissemination and communication activities. Alessandro is a strong partner among the FLOATFARM project. LinkedIn profile
Markel Penalba is Head of the Offshore Technologies & Aerodynamics and Green Hydrogen Technologies laboratories at Mondragon University, and a Research Fellow at the Ikerbasque Science Foundation. His research spans offshore renewable energy, efficient resource assessment and forecasting, and green hydrogen system integration. LinkedIn profile
Panelists presentation
Rafael Ruiz Maestre is a Structural Engineer and PhD specialised in advanced concrete and high-performance materials for infrastructure applications. He currently works as Innovation Project Manager at ACCIONA, where he leads R&D activities focused on sustainable and resilient solutions for large-scale infrastructure, including offshore wind systems. Within European initiatives such as MADE4WIND, he contributes to the development of innovative floating wind substructures, bridging research and real-world deployment.
Christian Windt graduated from the Hamburg University of Technology with a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering (2013) and a M.Sc. in Energy Systems (2016). In 2020 Christian then joined the Leichtweiss-Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources as the project coordinator of the ERAnet Co-Fund project NuLIMAS. Currently, Christian is the research group leader “Sustainable Ocean Engineering”, which embraces various projects related to marine renewable energies and aquaculture.
Francesco Papi
