Some while ago, I remember being rather dismissive of a floating wind turbine concept being proposed for the Minch. StatoilHydro has been approaching the problem with a rather more elegant approach, and is now close to installing the prototype 2.3 MW Hywind turbine offshore Norway. Details here.The turbine is going into a water depth of 220 m, so the water depth is roughly twice the hub height. This may well be a solution to Norway's offshore wind needs, as the country isn't blessed with much shallow water shelf, but I'm struggling to think of suitable locations on the UKCS.
We haven't been able to find any cost information for the project though - it would be interesting to see how it stacks up against "conventional" offshore wind.
Whatever happens, we'll keep an interested eye on how the 2 year testing programme evolves.
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