World’s Largest Floating Offshore Wind Farm Fully Operational
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the first paragraph.
Located 15 kilometres off the coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in water depths ranging from 60 metres to 80 metres, Kincardine is the largest operating floating wind farm.
Note.
- Wikipedia has a comprehensive section on floating wind turbines.
- Kincardine Wind Farm has a capacity of 50 MW.
- Its turbines are mounted on WindFloats, which were designed by Principle Power, who have this page on their web site, which describes advantages of the technology.
- The Kincardine wind farm appears to have been developed by Spanish company; Cobra and there are pictures on this page on their web site.
The WindFloats are triangular floating structures, which are based on semi-submersible offshore platform technology, that has been used in the offshore oil and gas industry since the early 1960s.
Semi-submersibles have good ship stability and seakeeping, so they would seem to be an ideal way to create a fixed structure in deep water on which to mount a wind turbine.
- The hull structure can be well below the surface of the sea, so they are not affected by waves.
- If they have a problem, it is handling changes of load on the platform. But this is an advantage with with wind turbines, as the load will be constant.
- Standard wind turbines can be used.
- All platform construction can be onshore rather than in the middle of a ferocious ocean.
- The platforms can be towed into position and moved into sheltered waters for servicing.
In Are Floating Wind Farms The Future?, which I wrote in 2020, I laid out my experience and views about floating wind farms.
I came to this conclusion.
It is my view, that floating wind farms are the future.
But then I’ve done the mathematics of these structures!
Did Boris’s advisors, as I doubt he knows the mathematics of oblique cylinders and how to solve simultaneous differential equations, do the mathematics or just read the brochures?
I will predict, that today’s structures will look primitive to some of those developed before 2030.
WindFloats seem to have fulfilled my predication and it’s only 2022.
How Big Can Floating Wind Turbines Get?
Platforms like WindFloat would appear to create a stable island that is as secure a mounting, as say a solid hill.
So I suspect that platforms can be created for the world’s largest wind turbines.
This article on offshoreWIND.biz is entitled World’s Largest, Most Powerful Wind Turbine Stands Complete.
This is the first paragraph.
With the final blade in place, the SG 14-222 DD prototype has become the world’s largest and most powerful turbine to be installed, taking the mantle from GE Haliade-X 14 MW prototype operating in the Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Note.
- This is a 14 MW turbine, that can be boosted to 15 MW.
- Kincardine Wind Farm has 5 x 9.5 MW and 1 x 2 MW turbines.
- Northern Horizons is talking about a 10 GW floating wind farm to the North-East of the Shetlands, that will use 20 MW turbines. The turbine visualisation on their web site, looks like it could be a WindFloat or similar technology.
How many 20 MW turbines does it need to carpet the seas around the UK?
Conclusion
Kincardine Wind Farm may be the world’s largest floating wind farm, but this won’t hold true for long.
- I can see various designs of semi-submersible platforms being developed, that will be able to support the world’s largest wind turbines.
- They will also be able to operate in the world’s deepest waters far out to sea.
- Northern Horizons talk of 20 MW turbines may sound ambitious, but I suspect that turbine engineers are already thinking bigger.
Offshore wind and its turbines will both have a huge future.
Floating Wind Swells, Hydrogen On A High And Here Comes The 150-Hour ‘Aqueous Air’ Battery
The title of this post is the same as that of this weekly summary on Recharge.
There are three major stories.
Floating Wind Turbines
A lot more floating wind turbines are under development, by the French, Swedes, South Africans and Japanese.
I do wonder, if these structures have borrowed the work done in Cambridge by Balaena Structures, for which I did the calculations, as I wrote about in The Balaena Lives.
From what I remember of my calculations fifty years ago, I suspect these floating turbines can be massive and places, in areas, where the winds are really strong.
I also believe that some could have built-in hydrogen generators and could be placed over depleted gas fields and connected to the existing gas pipes.
Hydrogen
The article describes how oil giants; BP and Shell are moving towards hydrogen.
Battery Storage
They also talk about Form Energy and their mysterious ‘aqueous air battery, which Recharge covered earlier. I discussed that article in The Mysterious 150-hour Battery That Can Guarantee Renewables Output During Extreme Weather.
Conclusion
This article is a must-read.
Recharge is also a site to follow, if you are interested in the developments in renewable energy.
Scotland’s Floating Wind Farm
This article on the BBC is entitled World’s first floating wind farm emerges off coast of Scotland.
In the early 1970s, I worked on a unique concept for a reusable oil platform called a Balaena.
I wrote about using a Balaena for a wind turbine in Could a Balaena-Like Structure Be Used As a Wind Power Platform?.
There is also a brief description of the idea in The Balaena Lives.
I have a strong feeling that revisiting all of the work done for a Balaena over forty years ago, could enable a better way to build a floating wind farm.
I would build my Baleana-based floating wind-power turbine like this.
- A steel cylinder is built, which will form the tower, horizontally in a dry dock.
- It is floated out horizontally to some very deep water perhaps in a fjord.
- It is then raised to a vertical position by letting a calculated amount of sea water into the tank.
- It will float vertically, if the weight profile is right and by adjusting water levels in the tank, the top can be raised on lowered.
- The tower is adjusted to a convenient height and the turbine is placed on the top.
- It would then be towed vertically into position.
Note that Balaenas were designed to sit on the sea-bed using a skirt and a gum-boot principle to hold them to the bottom, with extra anchors and steel ropes.
The Anonymous Widower 