Norwegian Company to Build Huge Offshore Floating Wind Turbine

                                                                                         

A Norwegian company, StatoilHydro, is planning to build Hywind, a floating wind turbine about 10 kilometers off the West coast of Norway. Hywind is to be the first full-scale biofriendly floating wind turbine. It will be built using existing offshore technologies. “We have drawn on our offshore expertise from the oil and gas industry to develop wind power offshore,” states Alexandra Bech Gjørv, head of New Energy in StatoilHydro. (1)

The wind turbine will be located in the open sea, because there the winds are stronger and more consistent. A 3-meter high prototype scale model was developed and tested in 2005. It turned out to be very successful and operated reliably in extremely adverse weather conditions.

The full-sized version is scheduled to become operational in 2009. The 2.3 MW wind turbine, made by Siemens, the Germany-based electronics giant, will be located on a mast atop a floating platform that will be moored to the seabed with three anchor points. The rotor blades of the turbine will be 80 meters (244 feet) in diameter and centered 65 meters (198 feet) above sea level.

The floating concrete platform installation can be operated in waters between 120 to 700 meters (366 to 2,134 feet) deep. It is to be assembled on land and towed out to sea with a tugboat, where it will be moored about 10 kilometers offshore. Cables on the seabed will conduct the generated electrical power from the turbines to the shore.

The purpose of this project is to test the feasibility of deep-water floating wind turbines, with the object of making wind power competitive with other power sources. If this pilot project turns out to be successful, the plan is to establish vast offshore wind farms of up to 200 turbines producing up to a thousand megawatts of power.

While the results of the scale model were promising, the technology of floating wind turbines in the real world yet has to be proven. To be viable, they must be able to function reliably, even with big waves and be operated and maintained safely and economically.

The potential of offshore floating wind turbines is huge. If successful, it will be able to provide abundant clean energy. At this early stage many difficulties will need to be overcome and success will depend largely on ingenuity and available financial resources.

Many other alternative energy sources are being tested and developed, as well as methods of utilizing existing sources more effectively and thus bring about a cleaner, greener planet. One company, Biofriendly Corporation, has developed a liquid fuel catalyst, called Green Plus®, which causes a cleaner, more linear burn in internal combustion engines, the result of which is more torque, fewer harmful emissions and improved fuel economy.

For more information about Green Plus, visit the Biofriendly website at www.biofriendly.com.


References:
(1) http://www.statoilhydro.com/en/NewsAndMedia/News/2008/Pages/hywind_fullscale.aspx

About the author:
Author, Peter Verhoeff, contributes articles on environmental issues for Biofriendly Corporation. More information on these and other topics can be found on the Biofriendly site.

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com