ENOVA has awarded a technology development grant of $2.1 million to Wind Catching Systems AS to support the design and testing of the wind turbine that Wind Catching Systems plans to install in its floating multi-turbine structure.
“This project challenges the conventional technology for offshore wind. Our mission is to support technology development and we will follow Wind Catching Systems with interest going forward,” says Nils Kristian Nakstad, CEO of Enova SF, a government enterprise owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment.
Wind Catching Systems’ grant will support the design, construction and testing of a wind turbine pilot planned at Mehuken wind park on the West Coast of Norway. The turbine is planned to be installed in 2023 for testing and verification.
“The government has great ambitions for offshore wind,” comments Norway’s Minister of Climate and Energy Espen Barth Eide. “If we succeed in lowering the cost of floating offshore wind, it could become an important source of renewable energy and represent a major opportunity for Norwegian industry. Therefore, we need projects like this that contribute to technology development.”
In the development and testing phase, Wind Catching Systems will cooperate with companies like Zephyr, Aibel, The Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) and DNV.
The Windcatcher is a floating wind power plant based on a multi-turbine design. Through having multiple turbines on a single floating platform, Wind Catching Systems will maximize the energy production per floating structure while enabling a self-contained maintenance system eliminating the need for specialized vessels to support offshore maintenance operations. It drastically reduces acreage use per megawatt-hour of electricity produced while minimizing complexity and cost of operations and maintenance.
