This month the world’s first full-scale floating wind turbine, the Hywind demonstration unit, started operating for the first time. It will be tested for a minimum of two years with the purpose of knowing more about the maintenance of floating offshore turbines and the practical aspects of the operation.

“Today, we’re inaugurating the pilot facility which could help floating wind turbines to make an important contribution in the longer term to meeting the world’s big demand for energy,” Margareth Øvrum, executive vice president for Technology & New Energy (TNE) in StatoilHydro, declared.

Hywind comprises a 2.3 MW wind turbine installed on a traditional floater of the kind previously used for such applications as production platforms and offshore loading. The turbine has been manufactured by the Siemens Wind Power company in Denmark, while France’s Technip built the floater and Nexans produced and laid the power cable to land.

According to the Statoil website, the main goal is not to generate revenues from the power generated by Hywind, but to test how wind and waves affect the structure. Once these answers have been obtained, StatoilHydro can work on commercialising the concept and brining down costs to enable floating offshore wind turbines to become competitive in the energy market.

“Our goal with the Hywind pilot is to test how wind and waves affect the structure, learn how the operating concept can be optimised and identify technology gaps,” Øvrum said. “Floating wind power remains an immature technology, and the road to commercialisation and full-scale construction of wind farms will be long,” she added.

Around 340 million Norwegian kroner (€39.6 million) have been invested by StatoilHydro in this project.

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Hywind