UNDERWATER INTERSECTION
A SUBSEA BUSBAR FOR THE WINDS
Floating wind, seaborne turbines that eliminate the need for costly, cumbersome, material- and deployment-intensive seabed-based construction are paving the way for the industry to thrive.
Ripe for development of offshore wind farms is off the east and west coasts of the U.S., where, of course, the most intense energy uses are. But the continental shelf drops off fast. The Department of Energy says about two-thirds of the country’s offshore potential is in areas where the water is too deep for fixed-bottom turbines.
Luckily, companies looking to address that issue are popping up as fast as new wind turbines need to in the face of a climate crisis. We already told you about World Wide Wind, in Norway, and its floating, counter-rotating vertical axis turbines, and Windlift, with its fascinating, tethered drones that fly on an AI-guided path and can be used on land, and how global energy companies are hitting their stride in the U.S. in recent weeks, sending the first offshore energy to Massachusetts and New York.
One of the things Windlift eliminated, right from the design phase, is the need for fancy quays and even fancier boats to install equipment. That’s a big step in an industry begging for profitability.
The infrastructure of a wind farm, even a floating one is far more than energy collectors, with lots of aspects where costs might be cut. Among them is how generated electricity moves.
The typical setup involves connecting turbines in a “daisy chain” configuration to combine their voltage and send it through underground cables, or trunk lines, to offshore and onshore substations.
Rethinking that is a project aimed at initially cutting the cost of connecting turbines by 10% for a one-gigawatt wind farm, using a central hub system called the Subsea Collector.
Norway’s Aker Solutions, with its extensive experience in oil and gas, now committed to sustainability targets, designed the star-shaped system. The METCentre (Marine Energy Test Centre) is piloting it at its offshore test facility. Two turbines are currently on site, with another five slated to be added by 2026.
The claim is that it is the first of its kind in the world. Savings come by way of a reduction in the amount of cable needed, which also saves on the expensive undertaking of undersea installations. It is also aimed at offering a lot more options when it comes to designing wind farms.
The METCentre expects it to be a game-changer. Its experts should know. They have been testing renewable marine technologies – wind, solar, and wave energy – since 2009. The very first floating turbine was installed there by Equinor back then. In 2019, it was Google Makani kites and soon after, the TetraSpar Demonstrator, a floating tubular steel structure with a suspended keel, planned as the start of major industry innovation...
