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Hywind: World’s first floating turbine to start its voyage

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Generally sidelined as aesthetic repellents, the tale about the renewable energy generators is going to disappear forever as Norway gears up to herald a new era where wind turbines won’t be eyesores anymore. StatoilHydro and Siemens plan to anchor the world’s first floating wind turbine off the Norwegian coast, at 12 kilometers from land, this weekend. It flaunts a towering 65-meter trunk above water and a rotor with 80 meters diameter. The 2.3-megawatt turbine will rest itself on a waterlogged 100-meter buoy. Hence, in a way, it offers a straight antagonism to the static offshore turbines that are hinged to the ocean floor by three anchor piles.


As each innovation comes up with more investments, even here the case is almost analogous. Allowing it to deck the ocean’s bosom, one can always be sure of better efficiency thanks to the powerful winds that will keep it functioning always. Well, it’s just a beginning and it’ll catalyze similar developments indubitably; more and more wind power developers will follow the lead.

We think this will be a new icon, symbolizing our company’s technology, innovation and ability to look in new directions. It is opening up a whole new business area in the world.

Says Anne Strømmen Lycke, VP StatoilHydro

How it becomes operational:
marintek hywind test

The developers, Norway’s StatoilHydro and Siemens, took almost a year to bring about this next-gen wind technology. After testing a smaller scale model in a water tank at Marintek in Trondheim, the final artifact is geared up enough for the ensuing 400 million NOK, two-year research project. The Hywind concept gets required assistance from the techno-giants and thrives to broaden the horizons of wind energy within deep-water environments. There had been no dearth of collaborators. Siemens builds the windmill itself, Technip supplies the sub-surface expertise and Nexans lays the sub sea cables. The floating structure consists of a steel jacket filled with ballast. In just five days, StatoilHydro was able to tow the 1,500-tonne structure from the Finnish port of Pori to the Gulf of Bothnia. Now it’s almost there in the field, 10 kilometers southwest of Karmøy.

Check out the video to see it working:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAyPpQ4gnjg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

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