Floating the Idea of Offshore Wind
Taking wind turbines out on the high seas is an expensive and controversial proposition. A new report from Emerging Energy Research says the cost of anchoring and constructing offshore turbines is high in part because there’s a lack of offshore construction equipment. But what if there was a solution that solved both the issue of beach-front eyesore complaints and eliminated the need for deep sea drilling?
MIT Technology Review sees two European startups as potentially changing the game by floating the idea of offshore wind out to sea. SWAY, a Norwegian startup, and Dutch Blue H Technologies are both working on putting wind turbines on floating rigs, taking design ideas from deep-sea oil and gas platforms.
Floating platforms could be put much farther out at sea and wouldn’t need the expensive and laborious process of ocean bed anchoring that standard offshore turbines need. While EER predicts that large utilities will continue to lead in the expensive endeavor of offshore wind development, SWAY and Blue H are offering innovative new designs could help tap into what EER estimates will be a 40 GW, $120 billion global opportunity by 2020.
Blue H already has a test platform floating and spinning away off the coast of Puglia, Italy. The tension-leg platform is a mainstay in offshore oil and gas exploration, but instead of an oil conduit Blue H’s platform sports a two-blade wind turbine. While most onshore turbines are three bladed, a two-blade turbine means faster rotations, which actually helps stabilize the Blue H platform, meaning it can be built lighter, CTO Martin Jakubowski says. The pilot platform has an 80-kilowatt turbine, but Blue H is developing 2.5 and 3.5 MW systems that could be deployed as early as this fall.
SWAY’s design is more like a buoy than an actual platform. Its 200-meter-tall buoy is able to bob in rough seas and uses a massive gravel-filled anchor to keep it from floating away. The company raised NOK 150 million (or $29 million) last year to help build its first pilot project, which is scheduled to be deployed by 2010. SWAY’s CEO Eystein Borgen plans to start commercial deliveries by 2012, a goal he says is “ambitious but realistic.”
These startups’ novel designs could help utilities and governments expand their offshore power generation. Just yesterday Iberdrola, the world’s largest operator of renewable power generation, announced its plans to develop six offshore wind projects totaling 3,000 MW by 2015. On Monday, at the European Wind Energy Conference, EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs said, “A maritime grid infrastructure is needed for the development of offshore wind energy. Without it, no offshore wind farms will be built.” This is all good news for offshore wind and the startups trying to make it a cheaper source of power.
Photo courtesy of MIT Technology Review. Graph courtesy of Emerging Energy Research.
