Oil Company Begins Wind Test of Off-Shore Floating Platform
Europe’s Cap and Trade has reduced fossil energy use and grown renewable energy
Here’s an example of how fossil energy companies could switch to renewable energy. The Norwegian company StatoilHydro is celebrating the off-shore wind inauguation this month of their Hywind pilot in the North Sea. Off-shore oil drilling companies are in a good position to leverage their expertize to develop off-shore wind; (just as fossil companies on land could also switch from oil drilling to geothermal drilling.)
StatoilHydro’s $58 million Hywind project draws on the company’s long years of experience in offshore oil and gas drilling to easily make the switch to renewable energy. Because of the long previous experience with suppliers they were able to deliver the off-shore wind project on budget and on schedule.
Siemens built the turbine, while Technip built and installed the offshore floater. Nexans Norway laid the submarine power line to the receiving station operated by grid operator Haugaland Kraft who will deliver the power to the grid
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The project is a bold, innovative first ever two year pilot program. The idea is to see if literally floating a 2.3 MW 65 meter high turbine with a 82.4-meter rotor on a traditional offshore oil production platform is going to work.
“Our goal with the Hywind pilot is to test how wind and waves affect the structure, learn how the operating concept can be optimized and identify technology gaps,” said Margareth Øvrum, VP of Technology & New Energy at the inauguration.
Image: Hywind
Via Renewable Energy Magazine
Deepwater wind has enormous potential as there’s more powerful and consistent winds closer to load centers without as many impacts to people, birds and bats. DOE and MMS should be spending big bucks to develop appropriate tech and prepare environmental impact studies on marine life. A major problem to overcome is the grinding of bearings and gears caused by the swaying accelerations of the turbine in waves and the entire tech should be reconfigured to produce more inexpensive and stable platforms with a lower center of gravity. One possible method of accomplishing this goal is to switch to Vertical Axis Wind Turbines that have a lower center of gravity, do not exacerbate the swaying accelerations and can be spaced closely together for mutual stabilization without the severe wind shadow effects experienced by HAWTs. There are 2 MW VAWTs available and it has been suggested that the Aerogenerator may be scaled to 10 MW but these designs are a long way from being durable enough for marine deployment that demands almost infallible designs due to the high cost of marine maintenance. All ecogeeks should demand DOE development of suitable marine wind farm designs and poke MMS to institute a proper methodology for assessing marine impacts of those farms.