Floating Wind Turbines Float into US Waters (Finally!)

The US has been lagging badly while other countries spring ahead with offshore wind farms, but when it comes to the niche sector of floating wind turbines we’re right up there with the front-runners.  That’s according to a recent article in The Guardian, which mentioned a US floating wind turbine demonstration project at Coos Bay off the Oregon coast in the course of an article on Portugal’s cutting edge floating wind turbine experiments.

The Coos Bay wind power project, called WindFloat Pacific, will be the west coast’s first ever offshore wind farm.  It is being developed by the aptly named company Deepwater Wind (not to be confused with DeepWind), using the WindFloat floating wind turbine technology provided by Principle Power, the same company behind the fixed-platform Block Island wind farm, which will most likely be the first offshore wind farm to operate on the East Coast).

A lot of attention also went into designing the WindFloat platform so that it could be fully assembled onshore and then towed to its final destination, in order to reduce construction costs as well as risk exposure.

That meant designing a platform with a very shallow draft (draft refers to the part of a watercraft that remains under water), enabling it to be shipped from shallow waters to the deep.

Two key aspects of the WindFloat consist of a special “closed loop” hull trim design and proprietary plates at the base of each of the three columns.  Called water entrapment plates or  heave plates, they are designed to stabilize the platform against wave action, while the hull trim works against changes in wind velocity.

The improved stability enables the turbines to operate more efficiently.  It also enables the WindFloat to employ standard onshore wind turbines, which are being provided by Siemens.

Floating Wind Turbines Float into US Waters (Finally!)