World’s Largest Floating Wind Turbine Launching Soon In Portugal

20 kilometers off the coast of Viana do Castello, Portugal, is about to be the new home to the largest floating wind turbine in the world, an 8.4-megawatt (MW) ABS-classed offshore wind turbine. This is continental Europe’s first large-scale floating wind farm. A belief is that this renewable installation is ushering in the Golden Era of wind, especially offshore wind.

A press release states that the 8.4 MW offshore wind turbine is about to be installed. It is scheduled to go online at the end of 2019.

“Large highly-efficient turbines reduce capital costs as well as operating costs, so the deployment of the world’s largest floating offshore turbine is a significant milestone in this emerging industry.”

As Continental Europe’s first large-scale floating wind farm, it is the first of three ABS-classed, SEMI Submersible Type units designed by Principle Power housing MHI Vestas turbines. The three will make up for a total of 25 MW of floating offshore wind power.

“ABS has supported innovation in offshore energy since 1958. This landmark installation underlines how we continue to support promising technology more than sixty years later,” said Christopher J. Wiernicki, ABS Chairman, President, and CEO.

“Floating turbines enable us to reach offshore wind resources in water that is too deep for conventional bottom-fixed turbines. It is breakthroughs such as this that will make a vital contribution to the global transition to clean energy.”

“Pace of innovation is all that matters in the long run,” Elon Musk has reminded us. This seems to be another notable case of powerful innovation to reduce harmful emissions. And it adds jobs in the meantime — worthwhile, critical jobs.

The press release continues by noting that the larger grand-scale installation grows from the same principles as the original Principle Power designed concept, Windfloat 1, which was installed offshore Portugal in 2011. (If you’re wondering, yes, we’ve been covering this company since then — actually, since back in 2009.)

The project is developed by the WindPlus consortium and is owned by EDP Renováveis, ENGIE, Repsol, and Principle Power Inc.

“Principle Power is very pleased to work with ABS, once again, in the framework of the WindFloat Atlantic project, building on the successful collaboration of the WindFloat 1 prototype. WindFloat Atlantic represents a major milestone for the floating offshore wind industry as it is the world’s first semi-submersible floating wind farm. We are proud of having led the process of industry standard-setting from the early days, together with ABS, and we look forward to taking the WindFloat technology to full commercialization around the world,” said Steven Barras, Chief Technical Officer at Principle Power.