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First Atlantic Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Deployed

By Renewable Energy World Editors
December 7, 2011 | 7 Comments

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New Hampshire, USA -- The offshore wind industry passed a milestone recently with the installation of the world's first floating offshore wind turbine off the coast of Agucadoura, Portugal. The WindFloat project consists of a 2-MW semi-submersible wind turbine that can be deployed without heavy machinery.

Principle Power, Inc., a Seattle-based offshore wind developer, and Energias de Portugal, a Portuguese utility, worked with more than 60 other vendors in the WindPlus JV group. The turbine was assembled onshore in a controlled environment before it was transported to the sea and towed more than 217 miles to open water.

CEO of Principle Power Alla Weinstein said in a written statement, "In a way we are making a similar leap towards new energy resources as the Oil & Gas industry did in the 1970's when it began using floating structures.”

The structure will undergo trial operations, commissioning and startup procedures over the next few weeks. These procedures will include a full production capacity test.

The WindFloat technology decreases wave and wind-induced motions, which allows a large turbine to be placed in waters with depths of more that 164 feet, where it is able to capture stronger winds. The platform allows for the use of any off-the-shelf turbine.

"The (deep) ocean is the next big energy frontier," said António Vidigal, CEO of EDP Inovação, in a press release. "Deep offshore wind technology, in particular the WindFloat, will allow us to harness stronger and more stable winds, and in the medium term deliver sustainable energy into our electrical system. Now is the time for extensive testing and validation, moving forward in the development of this promising technology. The WindFloat positions EDP on the leading edge of offshore wind exploration."

Wind Power

7 Reader Comments

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philhoey

December 7, 2011

Not sure this would work in the Gulf of Mexico or off the East Coast of the US due to the hurricanes that make a visit every year.

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Anonymous

December 8, 2011

Does the phrase "and towed more than 217 miles to open water " imply 217 miles from the closest shore? If so, that would seem like an excessively long distance given the need to transmit the energy to the grid....
Steven

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richard-lucy-11251

December 9, 2011

Wind harvesting in deep water offers enormous potential for storage of the energy for use when wanted rather than just when weather provides.

By pulling buoys down to a depth mechanically rather than generating electricity, the buoys can be allowed to rise to generate the electrical energy when wanted.

Firm seabed anchors must already have been installed, thus this scheme merely requires more to hold down pulleys and locking devices. All other items can be floated into position.

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paul-obrien-143332

December 9, 2011

Not the world's first floating wind turbine. Norwegian company Statoil deployed a 2.3MW turbine off Norway over 18 months ago. The Hywind project was the first full scale floating wind project in the world.
They are now in discussions with the Scottish Government about deploying Hywind II, which will be 5 turbines in over 100m water depth.

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Anonymous

December 15, 2011

I like the idea of storage, although I think we really want these offshore farms to serve as Utility plants and be on all the time. I don't think there is so much "calm" in offshore. However, if storage was needed, would not ballast tanks work well? Like on a ship or sub, you could use energy to blow out the water with very simple pumps driven by electricity, and then reverse the process to use electricty when needed. Tanks can be quite big and they also float, so it is easy to envision incorporating them into the floating design as part anchor, part flotation devices as well. Just a matter of how much water is allowed in.

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overhere

December 15, 2011

No costs are mentioned. Isn't that a significant issue? Any offshore wind is expensive- according to the EIA it's twice as expensive as land based turbines. The world average capacity is 33 for wind. In Europe lately it has been closer to 25.

Baseload power providers capacity factors are 85-90. They run all the time and can be controlled. Wind is weather dependent and usually provides the least ammount of power when most needed. There is no storage of electricity from a wind turbine.

High costs with low corresponding benefits for consumers is consistently the story for wind. Check out the "True Cost of Cape Wind." not exactly a manufacturers dream come true: significant rise in electricity costs don't create jobs, don't make companies competitive, and don't entice other manufacturers to settle in that state.

Costs matter.

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DrAlexC

December 16, 2011

Like Hywind & others, these systems are inadequate, expensive, unreliable, dangerous to sea & air species & shipping, and wasteful of resources, fossil fuel and transmission power.

The Hywind animation is a must-see, to gain an idea of the absurdity. The amount of fossil-fuel-processed resources (coal, iron, limestone, aggregate, etc.) is remarkable -- about 700 tons per MW peak for land-based windmills, and more for sea based. Then there's the insurance, maintenance & permanent waste of power in long transmission for all wind 'farms' anywhere. Couple all this with the low power density of wind in general and our descendents will rightly view us as chumps.

http://tinyurl.com/bl9vlc7 (can't handle wind even when off?)

This will fade as the subsidies from taxpayers & ratepayers fade. But, a few do stand to make $, eh?

PS, the present axial prop generators aren't even close to optimal... http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13430

And, oops, get ready to rebuild/move somewhere else...
http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/wind/a-less-mighty-wind
www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/us/21tttransmission.html?_r=1&hpw

Aaaah wind, so much hot air, so little juice/$.

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