World Wide Wind enters into technical cooperation with Taiwan’s Metal Industries Research & Development Center (MIRDC) for the further development and testing of its innovative floating wind turbine technology. Funding for a 1.2 MW demonstration unit has now been secured, marking an important new phase for the project.
Norwegian technology company World Wide Wind (WWW) has entered into a technical cooperation agreement with the Metal Industries Research & Development Center (MIRDC) in Taiwan. The cooperation focuses on the further development and technical verification of World Wide Wind’s patented floating offshore wind technology. At the centre of the cooperation is World Wide Wind’s CRAFT turbine, short for Counter-Rotating Axis Floating Tilted. The technology has been developed to address some of the key challenges facing the next generation of floating offshore wind and represents a fundamentally different approach to the design of large-scale wind turbines. The CRAFT turbine combines a floating structure with two vertical rotors rotating in opposite directions relative to each other. The concept is designed to reduce structural loads, provide a more stable floating platform and enable the development of very large-scale wind turbines.
Secured funding for 1.2 MW Demonstration Unit
The demonstrator will be developed as a full-scale version of the CRAFT concept and will represent an important step toward the commercial industrialization of the technology.
The demonstration project will provide World Wide Wind and its partners with valuable experience in the construction, installation, operation and performance of the technology under real offshore conditions.
“The project now hawing secured the funding required to move forward with the 1.2 MW demonstration phase is a major milestone for World Wide Wind. It means that we can move from extensive design, simulation and model testing into the next phase – the construction and testing of a full-scale demonstration unit,” says Stian Valentin Knutsen, CEO of World Wide Wind.
The demonstration unit is planned as part of the continued cooperation in Taiwan and will provide an important foundation for the further scaling of the CRAFT technology.
Verification Under Taiwanese Conditions
The cooperation with MIRDC will include extensive numerical analysis and model testing to document how the CRAFT technology performs under the demanding wind and wave conditions found in Taiwanese waters. Detailed models combining hydrodynamic and aerodynamic analysis will be developed to assess loads, six-degree-of-freedom motion and relevant structural responses.
The results will subsequently be validated through scaled testing in MIRDC’s advanced ocean engineering facilities. The testing will also be used to optimize the design and further develop the technology. Throughout the development, process, structural design and construction shall also be certified by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) to ensure compliance with applicable offshore wind standards. This work will provide an important technical foundation for the construction and deployment of the 1.2 MW demonstration unit and the continued development of larger turbines.
Taiwan as a Key Development Partner
For World Wide Wind, the cooperation with MIRDC represents an important international milestone.
Taiwan has developed significant expertise in offshore wind and at the same time offers demanding metocean conditions that place high requirements on technology, structural design and operations. This makes Taiwan a highly relevant partner for the further development and verification of CRAFT.
“The cooperation with MIRDC is a strong recognition of our technology and the work we have carried out over several years. Taiwan represents a highly demanding offshore environment, and precisely for that reason it is also an ideal location in which to verify our technology,” says Knutsen.
“The combination of a strong technical partner, extensive testing and now secured the funding required to move forward with the 1.2 MW demonstration phase allows us to take a significant step forward. We are moving from technology development toward demonstration in real-world conditions,” he continues.
Towards a New Generation of Floating Offshore Wind
World Wide Wind is developing a technology designed to scale to very large wind turbines. The company’s vision is to develop a new generation of floating wind turbines capable of producing large amounts of renewable energy at competitive costs. Unlike conventional wind turbines, where a large generator is positioned high above the water in a nacelle, the CRAFT concept is designed to position the generator at sea level in the structure. Combined with the counter-rotating rotors, this creates a fundamentally different architecture from the dominant wind turbine technology used today.
“We believe the future of offshore wind requires new technological solutions. CRAFT has been developed with the enormous scale required if floating offshore wind is to deliver significant amounts of energy globally in mind. We now have both a strong technical partner and the funding in place to take the technology forward toward demonstration,” says Knutsen.
World Wide Wind and MIRDC will continue their technical cooperation through the demonstration phase, with potential commercial applications to be explored based on the results of the demonstration.
About World Wide Wind
World Wide Wind is a Norwegian technology company developing a new generation of floating wind turbines based on its proprietary CRAFT technology – Counter-Rotating Axis Floating Tilted.
The technology combines a floating platform with two vertical, counter-rotating turbines and is designed to enable larger, more cost-effective and robust floating wind turbines for the global offshore wind market.
About MIRDC
The Metal Industries Research & Development Center (MIRDC) is a Taiwanese government-supported research and development organization working on technology development and industrialization in areas including metallurgy, offshore wind, marine technologies and advanced industrial solutions.
For further information, please contact:
Stian Valentin Knutsen, Founder & CEO
Tel. +47 90 11 00 90
e-mail: stian@worldwidewind.no