Statoil Invests in Floating Wind Farm… and Wins!

Norway. One of the biggest oil producer in the world but, also, one of the last oil consumer. Norway’s energy policy can be understood simply by that. They sell the oil of their territories to other countries and, with the incomes, they invest in new, smart, efficient and renewable technologies. The Statoil experience is an example. The Norwegian international company invested, years ago, in the first world floating wind offshore farm – Hywind. And now, 2016, they are running the pilot project.

The 30 MW pilot project will consist of five 6 MW floating turbines operating in waters. The Pilot Park objectives is to demonstrate cost efficient and low risk solutions for commercial scale parks. The technology that will be used in the pilot project has been tested with excellent results in a demonstration smaller project off the coast of Norway. Floating wind represents a new and significant renewable energy source that will complement an existing and expanding array of alternative energy projects in Scotland, where the pilot farm has been installed.

Hywind consists of a wind turbine placed on top of a ballasted steel cylinder. The floating turbine technology was first conceptualized in 2001, a scale-model was used to test the concept in 2005 and the world’s first floating full-scale wind turbine Hywind Demo was installed in 2009. Hywind is turbine independent and, in principle, any offshore wind turbine generator can be used as long as the combined weight of the nacelle and rotor is within the requirements for marine stability. Statoil’s proprietary Hywind-specific pitch motion controller is integrated with the turbine’s control system and mitigates excessive motions of the structure. This also eliminates the loss of energy due to aerodynamic or hydrodynamic movements and maximizes the power output from the turbine. The structure is ballast-stabilized and anchored to the seabed, as the pictures shows. The mooring system consists of three mooring lines attached to anchors suited to the seabed conditions on site.

Saipem (Eni) installed the pilot farm. Italy too has been part of the project. Thanks to the Saipem 7000, has been possible to install the huge turbine’s structure. With its state-of-the-art J-lay tower, upgraded dynamic positioning capability and fast ballasting system, the Saipem 7000 semisubmersible crane vessel has the capacity to handle the entire workscope of offshore construction developments worldwide, encompassing pipe-laying in water depths greater than 2,000 meters and heavy lift operations up to 14.000 tonnes.