Offshore wind farms are usually located in shallow water, where the depth is small enough to make installation and further maintenance easier. However, winds nearer to the shore are less constant, and usually significantly weaker than on the open water further away from shore. Going further quickly invites problems, biggest of which is the depth of the sea floor, which in many cases makes wind farm installation and maintenance nearly impossible.
Image credit: Principle Power
The answer may be floating wind farms, where each wind turbine is layed on top of a floating platform which is designed to maintain position and stability in the harsh open water conditions. Principle Power, Inc., based in San Francisco, shows off its WindFloat patented technology for installing wind farms in deeper water, away from the shores. WindFloat is basically a semi-submersible floating three-point foundation, which is fitted with patented horizontal water entrapment plates at the base of each column. They claim the pitch and yaw are negligible in an offshore environment, which is a great achievement if we take into account the weather and water conditions that can occur on open seas. To help keep the stability on a high level, the system is also equipped with an active ballast system. Principle Power is using WindFloat technology under license from the developers, Marine Innovation & Technology (California), but are converting this into ownership.
The company is currently working on demonstration projects on various locations in Portugal, United Kingdom, and in Oregon and Maine in the US, which are initial stages of bigger development agreements.
