Norwegian energy giant inaugurates the Hywind pilot project—the world’s first full-scale floating wind turbine—in the North Sea.
Norwegian energy giant, StatoilHydro (NYSE: STO) inaugurated its much-anticipated Hywind floating wind turbine pilot project Tuesday, six miles off the coast of Southwest Norway in the North Sea. Engineers will now test the 2.3-megawatt Siemens turbine wind turbine over a two-year period.
>>See also: Plans for Floating Offshore Wind Farm Making Waves in Mass.
“We’ve drawn on experience acquired during 30 years on the Norwegian continental shelf to realise this groundbreaking project,” said Gunnar Myrebøe, executive vice president for Projects & Procurement at StatoilHydro.
Following assembly in the Åmøy Fjord near Stavanger, the 5,300-ton, Hywind pilot was towed in June to a location 10 kilometers south-west of Karmøy island for a two-year test period.
StatoilHydro is investing $67 million in the Hywind project, with about $10 million of that coming from Enova SF, the state-run public corporation owned by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy Ministry.
“Floating wind power remains an immature technology, and the road to commercialization and full-scale construction of wind farms will be long,” says Margareth Øvrum, executive vice president for Technology & New Energy at StatoilHydro.
The concept of a floating turbine has long been attractive from both aesthetic and practical standpoints. Since the Hywind is designed to operate in water depths of 120-700 meters (about 400-2300 feet), it can operate well offshore, out of sight from vocal NIMBY opponents. In terms of practicality, the floating turbine concept makes large-scale offshore wind energy development more feasible in areas with prohibitively deep waters.
Generally speaking, large-scale offshore wind development is considered more feasible on the Atlantic Coast, where water depths are not nearly as deep as they are off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington. The U.S. Department of the Interior estimates the U.S. alone could generate 900 gigawatts of wind power off its Pacific coast alone.
As Hywind has already been successfully tested and hooked up to the local grid throughout the summer, company officials say the Hywind unit will be ready to start generating electricity in late September or early October.
What: StatoilHydro's Hywind Floating Wind Turbine
Where: North Sea, Southwest Norway
Cost: $67 million
Turbine size: 2.3 MW
Turbine weight: 138 tons
Turbine height: 65 m
Rotor diameter: 82.4 m
Draft hull: 100 m
Diameter at water line: 6m
Water depths: 120-700 m
Mooring: 3 lines
![Windflip Barge Design Makes Floating Wind Turbine Delivery a Snap [Animation]](http://crispgreen.com/files/2010/01/windflip3_39077a-150x150.jpg)
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How does it not fall over in a big storm? I am sure it has large counterweights, but a big enough wave would probably take it down, and waste the millions of dollars spent building it…This is an exciting step for clean energy though!
“How does it not fall over…”
By being really f**** big. Look at the photo closely, read description.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall. And could the storage batteries really hold all the electricity that would be surge generated in the leading edge of a hurricane or Noreaster?
I want to see how well it withstands a hurricane-level storm, myself.
I’m really for offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico, but it has to be both robust enough to not be destroyed and anchored well enough not to float off.
Oil rigs in Katrina were swirled around like floaty toys in a tub…not good for a power source of a major onshore city.
hurricanes occur in the tropics. the area this wind turbine is way above the tropics….
It never fails to amaze me (maybe I’m easily amazed) by the level of criticism regarding an article such as this. Do you think that the engineers looked at the problems with a floating wind turbine in an offshore environment and didn’t anticipate high winds and huge seas? This is a practical solution to a serious social problem, and good for you for suggesting potential flaws, but hey! Isn’t it great that someone actually got round to building it rather than just hoping the energy demand problem would go away?
An air tight compartment containing weights is what i assume it would be using to combate tipping over during storms. How long until a ship run into this….
Great idea though, lets hope it goes well.
Read many news about the floating wind turbine in this week. I think the security of floating wind turbine still need the test of times.
Goog morning, I work for Panda Magazine (WWF-France). I would like to receive the pictures of the floting windmill in high quality if it’s possible, please. I thank you.
Best regard, Gaëlle Haas
long after the peak of the “American Empire” has passed, quiet, thoughtful, conservative environmentally aware folk will take interest in these engineering marvels, and install them off of shorelines, with radio-beacons and GPS locations to be sure, and enjoy the perpetual clean power they promise for small coastal cities and their industries! We will mandate LED lighting and other carefully considered economies and live happily ever after, sans Cadillacs , sans McMansions, sans intolerable immoralities, and without the killing fields for oil, Iraq and Afghanistan to Turkmenistan! Wall Street will no longer influence us, and the Shysters of the past have taught us our lesson! Thank You Norway, and for the bio-gas example of Oslo’s buses, we are indebted to you for your great survival skills and fine applied engineering!