Giant floating wall of wind turbines moves a step closer to reality

[midian182]

Forward-looking: A new type of renewable energy facility could one day be providing power by using a massive wall of small wind turbines. A Norwegian company has been given certification for the design, which is essentially a floating wind farm.

Wind Catching Systems (WCS), based just outside of Norway's capital, Oslo, has been developing its Windcatcher system, which it describes as a "floating wind power plant based on a multi-turbine design."

CEO Ole Heggheim said the large model of the Windcatcher would reach a height of 984 feet and stretch 1,148 feet wide. This version of the floating facility would use 126 one-megawatt turbines.

In a recent LinkedIn post, the company writes that it has now been awarded an Approval of Principle (AiP) from the global classification agency DNV. Heggheim said this is an important milestone toward the construction of its first commercial demonstrator unit. He added that the 40 MW model that achieved the AiP will be the first out of four expected units in the project.

The small turbines can catch 2.5 times more energy per square meter of wind flow than a standard three-blade turbine design, writes Interesting Engineering. Each unit connects to a central substation that transmits electricity to the grid. It reportedly has the potential to produce green hydrogen, too.

WCS is creating a prototype of the Windcatcher design with help from a $900,000 investment from Norway's Enova fund – owned by the country's Ministry of Climate and Environment – that was handed over in February 2023. In June 2022, the company said it entered into a strategic agreement with automotive giant General Motors and has secured investment from GM Ventures.

The Windcatcher system aims to reduce the cost of floating wind power to €40 - 60 ($43 -$65) per MWh. Heggheim said a large structure behind the turbines should be a visual indicator for birds and that there are opportunities to incorporate detection and deterrence systems on the structure.

Using a floating design instead of a fixed-bottom one means that the system can be installed in much deeper waters. Recently, it was reported that China's massive floating dual-rotor wind turbine can generate power in waters up to around 300 feet deep and 62 miles from shore.

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Giant floating wall of wind turbines moves a step closer to reality

 

[polord]

A real bird killer..

 

[Dimitrios]

A real bird killer..

Changes the saying of hitting two birds with one stone.

 

[BladdyBlahBlah]

A real bird killer..

100% !!! This monster will kill so much wildlife it's not even funny but yet they will call it "green energy" LOL! Look at the disaster that happened off of Cape Cod just the other day with their wind turbine that fell apart into the ocean. Created a huge debris field that ruined many beaches. Took many many trucks to clear up just the stuff that washed up on the beach.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

Bird Chopper 5000. These people are insane.

 

[maxxcool7421]

100% !!! This monster will kill so much wildlife it's not even funny but yet they will call it "green energy" LOL! Look at the disaster that happened off of Cape Cod just the other day with their wind turbine that fell apart into the ocean. Created a huge debris field that ruined many beaches. Took many many trucks to clear up just the stuff that washed up on the beach.

car exhaust kills more birds than cats and windmills

 

[kiwigraeme]

car exhaust kills more birds than cats and windmills

Add in birds hitting windows in high rises with bad design ( ie window opposite side ). Add in birds dropping out of the sky from heatwaves . Add in pollution

Anti EV people really don't care that much about wildlife

I ask these people, do you notice how it's so much more pleasant to walk down a street with cars . Notice cars are so much quieter, you feel you are breathing in unburnt hydrocarbons, or badly burnt ie carbon monoxide

Some of this is huge improvements to ICE , but most of they anti EV or anti ICE improvements . Rolling coal etc

Not having to breath in highly toxic coal dust being stirred up in mining and transit etc

Yes bird strike is a problem for turbines and buildings - Solutions are sought for both

Probably the anti EV crowd like 4WD in nesting areas , in pristine environments. Maybe not , but call me cynical . I don't see these people pushing a anti-pollution position. Just the same old same old -lithium mining bad - but fracking oil/gas near your towns water table is wonderful and anti-commie

Anyway floating means you have more opportunity to take it away from known flight paths , plus maybe some floating distractions in front

 

[Northy]

Seems like there is a lot of leverage on the base of the structure. Given the high amount of resistance and the involved I wonder how much wind it would take to fold it over.

 

[daffy duck]

The Norwegian CorPower wave machine is infinitely more desirable and has ZERO affect on the wildlife. I absolutely loathe wind turbines, and out to sea already endangered albatross etc will be further decimated.

corpowerocean.com/wave-energy-technology/

 

[Rudyduu]

For those who can't read a full article before posting their ignorance:

"Heggheim said a large structure behind the turbines should be a visual indicator for birds and that there are opportunities to incorporate detection and deterrence systems on the structure."

 

[mbk34]

Having one large wind turbine seems far more efficient to me than having 70 smaller ones. It would require less maintenance and require fewer materials. I suspect the efficiency would be a lot better too. The physical strain on a large sail structure like that would also be larger than a standard rotating turbine. It's good to see them experimenting though.

 

[Endymio]

For those who can't read a full article before posting their ignorance:

"Heggheim said a large structure behind the turbines should be a visual indicator for birds and that there are opportunities to incorporate detection and deterrence systems on the structure."

For those who fail to think and blindly accept words fed to them, such a structure would need to match the dimensions of the turbine itself -- a thousand foot high and equally wide -- a structure larger than any building yet built. And floating too, no less.

And even still it wouldn't be fully effective, as birds typically swoop in to within mere feet or even inches of skyscrapers in urban areas before veering off.

 

[Freddie159]

Having one large wind turbine seems far more efficient to me than having 70 smaller ones. It would require less maintenance and require fewer materials. I suspect the efficiency would be a lot better too. The physical strain on a large sail structure like that would also be larger than a standard rotating turbine. It's good to see them experimenting though.

The idea with lots of small ones is they catch alot more of the smaller wind than one big turbine would and if one small turbine goes down the system can still generate power from the rest of the turbines. To offset the large number of turbines yes the base needs to be much bigger but remember this is 'floating' so it's got to be alot bigger anyway.

 

[mbk34]

The idea with lots of small ones is they catch alot more of the smaller wind than one big turbine would and if one small turbine goes down the system can still generate power from the rest of the turbines. To offset the large number of turbines yes the base needs to be much bigger but remember this is 'floating' so it's got to be alot bigger anyway.

I'm fairly sure (in that I just doubled checked it on google) that one large turbine is more effective than lots of small ones. Would they send out an engineer to this thing every time a turbine needs work? Keep in mind there are about 70 small turbines and that the lower ones are going to be continually hit by heavy spray. There's also all the additional cabling to combine the output from all these turbines that will need to be maintained. It just seems like the wrong direction to me but obviously it would be interesting to hear from an expert on the subject.

 

[Che Cazzo]

As expected, those who never gave a karp about wildlife and would even hunt the very endangered ones.....are suddenly defending birds from the holocaust of wind power!

Of course, they are not oil / coal shills that cause the biggest danger to any species of animals, and humans. But now they're suddenly wilfligfe defenders!!

Last week, a famous orange man accused wind power of killing whales...while his spoiled kids are busy shooting all kinds of animals for fun and trophies in Africa!!!

 

[Che Cazzo]

For those who can't read a full article before posting their ignorance:

"Heggheim said a large structure behind the turbines should be a visual indicator for birds and that there are opportunities to incorporate detection and deterrence systems on the structure."

They saw the word "wind" and got instantly triggered. It's a well know affliction for certain people of a certain political party.

 

[TommyBoyFL]

100% !!! This monster will kill so much wildlife it's not even funny but yet they will call it "green energy" LOL! Look at the disaster that happened off of Cape Cod just the other day with their wind turbine that fell apart into the ocean. Created a huge debris field that ruined many beaches. Took many many trucks to clear up just the stuff that washed up on the beach.

Ruined? Don't you think you are being a bit dramatic? Yes its unfortunate when things make a mess but nothing was ruined. Its much less a problem than a nuclear meltdown or oil spill or poisoning the air we breath.

 

[Endymio]

those who never gave a karp about wildlife.....are suddenly defending birds from the holocaust of wind power!

Of course, they are not oil / coal shills that cause the biggest danger to any species of animals, and humans.

Last week, a famous orange man accused wind power of killing whales...

I realize logic is wasted upon those who base their sociopolitical ideology upon repeatedly bleating, "Orange Man Bad!", but nothing in your post disputes the truth that this structure is perfectly designed to mince birds into chopped meat. Small wind turbines spin much faster than large ones, and are much harder for birds to see and avoid -- and this one structure contains one million square feet of them.

Also, per unit energy generated, fossil fuels kill about one tenth of one percent of the wildlife that wind farms do. And you don't get to deny facts just because they're stated by people you don't like. Wind turbines kill whales -- and other wildlife.

Bloomberg: "Planned wind projects off the New England coast threaten to harm the region’s dwindling population of endangered right whales, according to a US government marine scientist. The warning from a top National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official, obtained by Bloomberg under a Freedom of Information Act request, underscores the potential legal and environmental perils of offshore wind development..."

AP News: "...Two federal environmental agencies issued plans Thursday to better protect endangered whales from offshore wind farm development...."

From UK Daily Mail: "...Researchers at the University of St Andrews have previously said that the noise made by offshore wind farms can interfere with a whale's sonar, and can in tragic cases see them driven onto beaches where they often die...."

From "Save The Whales Foundation": "...The findings of federal scientists at NOAA-Fisheries (National Marine Fisheries Service) were that the [offshore wind] project represented a threat to the continued existence of the North Atlantic Right Whale...."

US Geologic Service: "...Dead bats are found beneath wind turbines all over the world. It’s estimated that tens to hundreds of thousands die at wind turbines each year in North America alone...."

"...Collision vulnerability among marine birds of the California Current System associated with offshore wind energy infrastructure..."

In fact, there was near-unanimous agreement on the subject --- until Trump said it. Then, with predictable absurdity, the usual suspects rushed to denounce him.