Portugal's First Offshore Wind Turbine Sets Sail

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Portugal has officially commissioned its first offshore wind turbine which also happens to be Europe's second only large-capacity floating wind turbine.

Called the WindFloat, the 2-megawatt (MW) turbine is located five kilometres (Km) off the coast of Aguçadoura. Not only is it the country's first offshore turbine but it is the first offshore wind turbine to be installed without the use of any heavy lift vessels or piling equipment at sea. The WindFloat underwent all final assembly, installation and pre-commissioning of the turbine and its substructure on land in a controlled environment. The complete system was then towed offshore more than 350km in Atlantic waters to its location in December last year. For additional information, see December 9, 2011, article - First 'WindFloat' Floating Offshore Turbine Sets Sail.

Since then, the WindFloat -- which uses a Vestas v80 2.0MW turbine -- has already generated 1.7 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity, which the owners claim is enough to power 1,300 homes. WindFloat is unique in that it can support off-the-shelf commercial wind turbines from any manufacturer. Designed by renewable energy developer, Principle Power (Seattle, Washington), the turbine was officially inaugurated with Portuguese project partner, Energias de Portugal SA (OTC:EDPFY) (Lisbon, Portugal).

In its first six months at sea, the WindFloat has survived a harsh winter in the Atlantic, withstanding waves of up to 15 metres at the close of 2011, Principle Power stated.

"In relation to offshore wind, floating foundations are one of the solutions with the highest potential for harvesting wind in deeper waters and the WindFloat project was a highly interesting possibility for us to help explore this area within offshore wind," explained Ditlev Engel, CEO of Vestas.

Alla Weinstein, President & CEO of Principle Power, added: "The entire system was fabricated using domestic resources, suppliers and infrastructure. Since its connection to the grid, the WindFloat has delivered an energy profile far better than that of local onshore wind installations. With Repsol entering the joint venture, Windplus is now in a position to advance the next phase of the project calling for a 25+ MW pre-commercial array of turbines".

The WindFloat follows in the footsteps of the Hywind floating offshore wind turbine, developed by StatoilHydro ASA (NYSE:STO) (Stavanger, Norway), which was deployed off the coast of Norway in September 2009. For additional information, see September 15, 2009, article - First Floating Wind Turbine Launches in Norway.

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