Counter-Rotating Offshore, Floating Wind Turbine

 

World’s first counter-rotating offshore, floating wind turbine to begin testing at Vats, Norway.

The Norwegian company World Wide Wind AS (WWW) which is developing a new design for offshore floating wind turbines, and AF Gruppen (AFG), the second largest Norwegian engineering and construction company, have agreed to test the first WWW prototype at the AF yard at Vats on the South West coast of Norway.

Counter-Rotating Offshore, Floating Wind Turbine (1)

Bjørn Simonsen, CEO of WWW, said:

“We are very proud to test our first prototype in cooperation with AF Gruppen and look forward to the launch and subsequent test program, as well as exploring further opportunities for collaboration. We very much appreciate the support we have received from the AF team so far and are very grateful that they are letting us use their yard at Vats for the test.”

Counter-Rotating Offshore, Floating Wind Turbine (3)

The 30kW prototype turbine has a total length of 19 meters. It will demonstrate the main innovative elements of the WWW design, such as two counter-rotating blade sets on a vertical axis, a generator placed in the bottom of the structure, and allowing the turbine to tilt with the wind like a sailboat.

Counter-Rotating Offshore, Floating Wind Turbine (2)

Lars Myhre Hjelmeset, Executive Vice President Offshore in AF Gruppen, said:

“We are pleased to support WWW with their first prototypes of a new and innovative design for offshore floating wind turbines. By supporting a company such as WWW, we get unique possibility to demonstrate our capabilities to provide services to the offshore wind market at our facilities in Vats.”

Images credit World Wide Wind

source World Wide Wind