"Floating Wind Turbines", Paul Sclavounos (MIT Lecture)

October 11, 2006,
12:00pm - 1:30pm

Speaker: Paul Sclavounos, MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering. The presentation will focus on the development of an innovative floater concept and its anchoring system supporting a 5MW offshore wind turbine for deployment in 1-2 GW offshore wind farms and in water depths ranging from 30 to several hundred meters. The floating wind turbine system has been designed to float stably prior to its anchoring to the seafloor by using concrete and water in internal ballast tanks. This allows the full assembly of the system onshore at a shipyard or a coastal manufacturing facility prior to its towing by a tugboat to the offshore site for its connection to preinstalled tethers or taught mooring lines thus circumventing expensive offshore assembly. The very favourable dynamic response properties of the moored system in severe wind and wave conditions are presented, including recent research investigating the further reduction of the system dynamic and flexural responses by installing specially designed dampers inside the floater and in the nacelle. The economic merits of this floating offshore wind power unit derived from its flexible manufacturing, deployment and relocation attributes will also be addressed.