18 August 2009

Global perspectives: Floating wind turbine off Norway

By Cris Whetton

The world's first floating wind turbine towed out to sea off Norway.

Statoil’s Alexandra Beck Gjorv said the Hywind “should help move offshore wind farms out of sight.” She said it could lead to offshore wind farms eventually locating miles offshore, away from areas where they cause disruption.

This would benefit military radar operations, the shipping industry, fisheries, bird life, and tourism. The Hywind, a 2.3 MW wind turbine built by Siemens, combines technologies from the wind farming industry and the oil and gas sectors, and will undergo testing off the coast of Norway for two years. The turbine has a 100-meter draft anchored to the seabed with cables that can be up to 700 meters long. Offshore wind farms cost considerably more than wind farms on land, and initially floating ones will be more expensive than static offshore installations, but over time, Gjorv said the floating turbines should not cost more than fixed ones.

Statoil plans to target markets where there is ability to pay as well as large and growing demand for energy. She said floating wind farms could be established off both coasts of North America and off the Iberian Peninsula and the coasts of Norway and the U.K. Floating wind farms could also provide an additional source of energy for countries that have run out of space for their onshore wind farms, or where there is not enough wind on land.

In Voznesensk, in the Mykolaivsky region of Ukraine, Zorg Ukraine Ltd started a biogas-engineering project to build a plant for Zeleny Gai, a local Ukrainian company.

They will feed the plant corn and perennial native grasses, such as Goat’s-rue (Galega officinalis). The biogas plant will process 10 tons of silage per day, producing 2000 cubic meters of biogas per day, of which a certain amount will end up producing electricity (125 kilowatt-hour). Heat will go in a heating system of a 1,500 m2 greenhouse in Bugskoe village. Zeleny Gai produces a spirit distilled from grapes and known as Greenwich.

Cris Whetton is InTech’s European correspondent.