CIP Picks Stiesdal Floater For 100MW Scottish Offshore Wind Farm
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Offshore Engineering.
These two paragraphs introduce the project.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has selected Stiesdal Offshore’s TetraSub floating foundation structure for the 100MW Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm project, to be located off the coast of Dounreay, Caithness, Scotland.
The technology has been said to offer a lightweight and cost-effective floating solution, based on factory-made modules which are then assembled domestically in port to form a complete foundation.
Note.
- The TetraSub seems to have been designed for ease of manufacture.
- One if the aims appears to be to build a strong local supply chain.
- The TetraSub was designed with the help of Edinburgh University.
- The TetraSpar Demonstrator is in operation off the coast of Norway.
- This page on Mission Innovation describes the TetraSpar in detail.
- The TetraSpar foundation, owned by Shell, TEPCO RP, RWE, and Stiesdal.
- It can be deployed in water with a depth of up to 200 metres.
- Currently, they carry a 3.6 MW turbine.
- At that size, they’d need 27 or 28 turbines to create a 100 MW wind farm.
The home page of the Pentland Offshore Wind Farm gives more details.
This article on offshoreWIND.biz is entitled CIP And Hexicon To Halve Pentland Floating Wind Project Area.
- The project area has been halved.
- The number of turbines has been reduced from ten to seven.
- Compact turbines will be used.
- The project will be built in two phases, one turbine in 2025 and six in 2026.
- Effectively, the first turbine will help to fund the second phase, which eases cash flow.
The changes show how the wind farm has changed during development due to local pressures and improved technology.
Conclusion
It does seem that the competition is growing in the field of floating wind turbines.
Given the quality of the research and backing for these floats and the fact they now have an order, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this technology be a success.
The Anonymous Widower 
Pretty disappointing again that its not a homegrown company that is leading the way the govt like to shout that we are world leaders in offshore wind but the reality is we are leaders in is handing over taxpayer and consumers money to overseas entities.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | October 13, 2022 |
It does appear that the first float was the WindFloat from Pinnacle Power, who are a US company. I don’t think we missed the boat, it was just the Americans got in first. This one is a Norwegian company, but all the dynamics were done at the University of Edinburgh, who had the world-class facilities to test it. They probably do a lot of testing for the oil industry.
But these developments are happening in British waters, because the Governments of the UK and Scotland have got the financial environment right.
I could argue, that we missed the boat with the Balaena in the oil industry in the 1970s, but the Cambridge company behind it never made a sale.
Comment by AnonW | October 14, 2022 |