The largest floating wind turbine in the world, an 8.4-megawatt (MW) offshore wind turbine, is about to be installed 20 kilometers off the coast of Viana do Castello, Portugal. It is the first of three SEMI Submersible Type units designed by Principle Power housing MHI Vestas turbines that will make up for a total of 25 MWs of floating offshore wind power.
The project is developed by the Windplus consortium, which is jointly owned by EDP Renováveis, ENGIE, Repsol, and Principle Power Inc., and is planned to go online at the end of 2019. The development is based on the same principles as the original Principle Power designed concept, WindFloat 1, that was installed off Portugal in 2011.
Commenting on the project, Christopher J. Wiernicki, ABS Chairman, President and CEO, said that:
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
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For his side, Steven Barras, Chief Technical Officer at Principle Power, noted that the WindFloat Atlantic represents a major milestone for the floating offshore wind industry as it is the world’s first semi-submersible floating wind farm.
Because of their floating foundations, floating offshore wind farms are not subject to the same depth restrictions as fixed structures and can be at any depth. With the development of larger turbines above 10 MWs and research focused on shallow water moorings, the floating technology may even be an alternative to traditional bottom- founded technologies in intermediate water depths in the future.
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
concludes Matt Tremblay, ABS Senior Vice President, Global Offshore.
