World’s First Deepwater Floating Wind Turbine To Be Built By StatoilHydro
By Nick May 24, 2008
StatoilHydro, a Norwegian oil company, will start building the first deepwater floating wind turbine. The construction will begin next year and it will be placed off Norway’s coast. StatoilHydro will invest about $80 million in the test project called Hywind.
There are many offshore wind turbines across the world, but this is the first to be on top of a buoy just like the technology of offshore oil and gas platforms. The advantage over stationary wind turbines is that it can be moved in far deeper waters where the winds are much stronger.
“Taking wind turbines to sea presents new opportunities. The wind is stronger and more consistent, areas are large and the challenges we are familiar with from onshore projects are fewer,” Alexandra Bech Gjoerv, head of New Energy division at StatoilHydro.
She continued and stated that “floating wind power is not mature technology yet, and the road to commercialization and large scale development is long. An important aspect of the project is therefore research and development”.
StatoilHydro plans to build wind farms consisting of 2.3 megawatts turbines like the ones they test which could produce enogh power for 1,000 homes, but for now they admit that these parks are only a dream.
Topics: Energy |
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