Improving offshore wind technologies An international consortium of partners from different European countries joined forces to develop very large offshore wind turbines to generate wind power in deep-water areas at low cost. Industrial Technologies © Thinkstock Europe has huge untapped offshore wind resources in water depths exceeding 50 metres. However, installation of seabed foundations is technically and/or economically unfeasible. To cost effectively utilise these resources, innovative floating foundation designs, and high-power and high-reliability turbine technologies are required. The 'High power, high reliability offshore wind technology' (HIPRWIND) project brought together a consortium of leaders to create and test novel, cost-effective approaches to floating wind turbines at megawatt (MW)-scale. Members aim to produce a fully functional wind turbine that will be deployed at a European ocean test site. This MW-scale test installation will overcome the current gap in technology development between small-scale tank testing and full-scale offshore deployment. Through this installation, critical issues of deep offshore wind technology can also be addressed. These include innovative floater designs, efficient installation methods, advanced control engineering solutions and grid integration aspects of floating wind turbines. This research also addresses the need for extreme component reliability. Innovative engineering methods will be applied for large rotor blade designs, structural health monitoring systems, reliable power electronics and control systems. Built-in active control features will reduce the dynamic loads on the floater in order to save weight and cost compared to existing designs. The project team has already finalised the concept design of the demonstration floating platform and studied its dynamic behaviour. Work is ongoing to design the mooring system and dynamic cables with respect to geotechnical specifications of the chosen sea test infrastructure in Spain. To ensure access to and safe operation and maintenance of the floating turbine, an operations and maintenance protocol has been defined. Several active and passive concepts for blade load reduction were analysed and suitable beam geometry for structural fatigue testing has been selected. HIPRWIND is expected to synthesise research and development findings in the future that will provide the industry with a roadmap and vision for the development of very large offshore wind turbines. This will help reduce risks and costs over the technology development process. Keywords Offshore wind turbine, floating turbine, deep-water area, dynamic load, dynamic cables, blade load reduction
