Hydro, World Wide Wind explore use of aluminium in floating wind turbines

The Norwegian companies are teaming up to develop floating wind turbines that use sustainable and recyclable materials, including aluminium and will work together to detail the design of turbines including the use of aluminium; produce prototypes; and building a consortium of industrial partners.

World Wide Wind chief executive Trond Lutdal said, “Today, floating offshore wind turbines have more or less the same design as turbines used on land. In effect, we are moving land-based technology offshore.

“At World Wide Wind we are developing a new type of floating wind turbine for deep water, which we believe will have significant benefits compared with existing technology in terms of energy production, cost, scalability and environmental footprint. Our design gives us an opportunity to use aluminium components in parts of the structure of the turbine.”

Norsk Hydro corporate technology research manager Trond Furu said, “Hydro sees potential for increased use of aluminium in many industries, including wind power. For Hydro, this is an entry into the wind turbine production chain and, at the same time, we are strengthening our position in the renewable energy market.”

World Wide Wind says its floating wind turbines are scalable up to 40 MW – more than twice the capacity of existing turbines – and will use less materials and have a smaller CO2 footprint than conventional turbines. It is developing counter-rotating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) it claims are “a significant improvement” over current VAWT technology.