Jun 03 2008

Do You Know the Way to Åmøyfjorden?

Call it a phase, but somewhere between the Seabear and the North Sea, I've found myself on a Scandinavian kick lately. This brings me to my most recent discovery, compliments of my friends across the pond...

Floating wind turbines in the North Sea. What a concept -- windmills out at sea, far away from the critical eyes of landlubbers and the wandering routes of migration birds. But, will it work?

Rendering by StatoilHydro.With an investment of about $78 million, StatoilHydro takes on the task of building the world's first full-scale floating wind turbine prototype to test for two years. The Hywind design uses a three anchor moorings that hold a 200 meter tall steel tube with an attached turbine and three 60-meter-long blades. 

It will take a village to bring such a massive project to life by Fall 2009. 

To be assembled in Norway (in Åmøyfjorden near Stavanger and located about six miles offshore Karmøy in the county of Rogaland), the wind turbine itself will be built by Siemens. Technip will be charged with floatation element building and offshore installation. Nexans will lay cables to shore, and Haugaland Kraft will be responsible for the landfall. Enova will support the project with about $11.5 million.

StatoilHydro admits that floating wind power is not a mature technology yet and anticipates a long road to large-scale development. Among the key issues are price, servicing and the wear and tear of Mother Nature. However, success will be a major step in moving the wind power industry offshore. 

With more projects like this coming to commercialization, it looks like clean power may go the way of oil -- out to sea.

Posted by: Katie Romans | Comments (1) digg delicioussend to a friendprint entry

 

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Wind


1 Comments

Great entry, Katie. Love the level of detail you managed to get in there! Probably won't be able to compete with coal and oil any time the next decade, but definitely a great technology to look into! Keep it up :)

Comment by Rune (Norway) on June 4, 2008


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  • Great entry, Katie. Love the level of detail you managed to get in there! Probably won't be able to compete with coal and oil any time the next decade, but definitely a great technology to look into! Keep it up :) -Rune (Norway)
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