Floating Wind Farm

World's first floating wind farm to be built in North Sea

By Claire Soares

Published: 27 June 2007 -independent.co.uk

The world's first floating wind turbine could be up and running in under two years after the German engineering giant Siemens teamed up with a Norwegian energy group yesterday to try to generate electricity in the middle of the North Sea.

If successful, it could prove the perfect solution for environmental campaigners, confronted with a public that like the idea of wind power but think wind turbines are an eyesore.

And it is something the engineers behind the ground-breaking project are also keen to stress.

"It's attractive to have windmills out at sea. We can produce a lot of energy, out of sight," said Alexandra Bech Gjoerv, the head of the energy division at Norsk Hydro, the Norwegian firm spearheading the project.

Wind turbines at sea are nothing new, but until now they have had to be sited in shallow waters so the bases could be fixed to the seabed. This not only means complicated and costly construction but also visual pollution, as the rotating blades can be seen from the shore.

The demonstration turbine, set to cost 200m Norwegian kroner (£17m), will be eventually floating near the island of Karmoy, south-west of Norway.

"It's a logical step," Walt Patterson, an energy expert at the Chatham House think-tank in London, said. "Floating turbines will be easier to make because you can do most of the fabrication on land and then float it out to sea.

"The turbine will be much better placed. Further out to sea you have a much stronger and more reliable wind supply as you don't have trees, hills and buildings sticking up and getting in the way, although you do need to worry about stability and making sure the thing stays standing."