Wind energy – innovation
Norwegian outfit Wind Catching Systems calculates innovative technology would transform economics and cut offshore wind farm acreage use by 80%.
Floating wind power could be cost-competitive with conventional bottom-fixed offshore plants next year, Wind Catching Systems (WCS) claims as it unveils an innovative multi-turbine concept for deep-water developments.
The new company, working with Norwegian contracting giant Aibel, has designed a giant wall of 1-megawatt machines set atop a moored semi-submersible platform, promises to cut offshore wind farm acreage use by 80% while reducing production costs”, according to WCS chief executive Ole Heggeim.
“The Wind Catcher will make floating wind competitive as soon as in 2022-2023, which is at least 10 years earlier than conventional floating offshore wind farms. Our goal is to enable offshore wind operators and developers to produce electricity at a cost that competes with other energy sources — without subsidies.”
Ole Heggeim: “Harnessing the full energy of high wind speeds in Europe’s northern waters boosted by the Wind Catcher’s multi-rotor effect would make the new technology five times as efficient as a conventional offshore wind turbine.”
Each Wind Catcher would produce enough energy for 80,000 households, with an integrated substation in a ‘mother vessel’ connecting all units and exporting power to land. There would also be the potential to adapt the field-level concept to a Power-to-X design for hydrogen production.
The WCS concept, with a design life of 50 years, will cost substantially less to maintain than today’s floating wind solutions.
