Norway - StatoilHydro to build world's first full scale floating wind turbine

Norwegian energy company StatoilHydro has decided to build the world's first full scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, and test it over a two-year period, offshore Karmoy, Norway. The company is investing approximately NOK400 million, with startup planned for autumn 2009.

StatoilHydro has said that a 2.3MW wind turbine is attached to the top of a so-called spar-buoy, a solution familiar from production platforms and offshore loading buoys.

The rotor blades on the floating wind turbine will have a diameter of 80m and the nacelle will tower some 65m above the sea surface. The floatation element will have a draft of some 100m below the sea surface, and will be moored to the seabed using three anchor points. The wind turbine can be located in waters with depths ranging from 120-700m.

The pilot project will be assembled in Amoyfjorden near Stavanger, Norway, and is to be located some 10km offshore Karmoy in the county of Rogaland. The wind turbine itself is to be built by Siemens.

French engineering group Technip will build the floatation element and will have responsibility for the offshore installation. Nexans will lay cables to shore, and Haugaland Kraft will be responsible for the landfall.

Alexandra Gjorv, head of new energy at StatoilHydro, said: "We have drawn on our offshore expertise from the oil and gas industry to develop wind power offshore. Taking wind turbines to sea presents new opportunities. The wind is stronger and more consistent, areas are large and the challenges we are familiar with from onshore projects are fewer."