The University of Texas at Dallas received a $3.3 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for its vertical axis floating offshore wind turbine; The grant is part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and will be used for designing and building the turbine prototype.
Specifically, the wind turbine was designed by the University’s Dr. Todd Griffith.
The turbine includes vertical blades and axis of rotation and the platform, smaller than the traditional ones, is placed above the sea’s surface and partly below, like a ship.
Moreover, the turbine is attached to the seafloor with cables under ocean depths of at least 200 feet. The generator and controls are on the platform, providing greater stability and facilitating easier maintenance.
The blades are able to rise between 600-700 feet above the ocean surface, but can reach as high as 900 feet, with Dr Griffith adding that the turbines would not obstruct ocean views because they would be at least 20 miles from the coast, past the horizon.
A traditional turbine design is great for land, and it can make sense offshore in shallow waters, but when you build in deep water in the ocean, you need a totally new design
… commented Dr Griffith.
UT Dallas researchers are working with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and corporate partners Aquanis Inc., VL Offshore and XFlow Energy.
Concluding, the renewable energy insurance provider GCube Insurance recently stated that the offshore wind sector has to overcome some challenges to be able to achieve more sustainable approaches to risk management and insurance in order to respond to a global changing risk profile.
