The UK’s Energy Technology Institute has selected a floating 5 MW offshore wind turbine project as one of the first four recipients of funds under a new grant initiative.
Project Deepwater Turbine, a London based consortium made up of Blue H, BAE Systems PLC, EDF Energy, CEFAS, SLP and Romax wants to position offshore wind energy turbines between 30 and 300m deep in seas otherwise too inhospitable for construction of conventional foundations.
A prototype turbine has been built and the first 2MW turbine is proposed in the coastal waters of Italy this year.
Other companies have been investigating the potential for floating wind turbines for a number of years due to the difficulties of building offshore wind farms in deep waters.
CharlieO
January 15th, 2009
Statoil Hydro are testing a similar 2.3 MW turbine of the coast of Norway. Siemens will build the turbine, Sintef have helped develop control technology, Technip are in charge of floating elements and installation, and Nexans will install the cable.
It will theoretically function in sea depths of up to 700m.
I covered this in a recent post on offshore wind and the London Array, full details are available on the Statoil Hydro website.