Floating wind farm with lodging

摘要

A 750-meter-long floating wind farm with living space could harness energy from places too deep and seabed conditions too difficult for bottom-mounted wind development. Hexicon, a Swedish design and engineering company, says its wind-farm design will use a centralized turret mooring system that lets a platform and its turbines automatically align to the wind. The company says the system becomes increasingly competitive at depths greater than 40 meters. Although designs will vary depending on site, one shows the platform supporting twenty-four 3-MW turbines. Of those, 13 encounter clean wind at all times. The aft turbines experience a wind velocity deficit of 10 to 35%, but still enough wind to justify their presence, Hexicon says. A quick-release system allows moving the platform with integrated thrusters, reducing political and commercial risk. The size and stability of the platform results in a competitive cost structure, the company says, and on-board crew will limit downtime.