(Image: GE Research)
GE researchers are working on a project to design and develop advanced controls to support a 12-megawatt (MW) floating offshore wind turbine, in an effort to enable larger, more powerful turbines to be installed deeper waters unlocked by floating wind technologies.
The $4 million project is being run through ARPA-E’s ATLANTIS (Aerodynamic Turbines Lighter and Afloat with Nautical Technologies and Integrated Servo-control) program, which aims to accelerate the development of new technologies to promote the future of floating offshore wind energy.
Rogier Blom, a senior principal engineer in model-based controls and the project’s principal investigator, said the enormity of building a floating platform that can support a structure as large as an 850-plus feet offshore turbine cannot be understated “Designing a floating turbine is like putting a bus on a tall pole, making it float and then stabilizing it while it interacts with wind and waves. Doing this wel
GE Researchers Unveil 12 MW Floating Wind Turbine Concept
Highlights $4 MM Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) ATLANTIS project during ARPA-E’s Virtual Innovation Summit
Project involves the design and development of optimized controls that could enable future offshore turbines 35% lower in mass compared to current designs for floating offshore turbines
Floating Turbines would open up possibility for offshore installations at depths beyond >60m
Would dramatically expand potential of US offshore wind resources to more than 7,000 TeraWatt hours (TWh) per year, nearly double the total annual US energy consumption of 4,000 TWh
GE researchers unveiled details of an ongoing two-year, $4 MM project through the ARPA-E’s ATLANTIS (Aerodynamic Turbines Lighter and Afloat with Nautical Technologies and Integrated Servo-control) program to design and develop advanced controls to support a 12 MW Floating Offshore Wind Turbine. GE is partnering on the project with Glosten, o
GE is partnering with Glosten, the developer of the PelaStar tension-leg platform floating wind turbine foundation, as part of an ongoing US research project funded by ARPA-E.
The companies are working together as part of the $4m project, supported through the Aerodynamic Turbines Lighter and Afloat with Nautical Technologies and Integrated Servo-control (ATLANTIS) programme, to design and develop controls to support a 12MW floating offshore wind turbine.
Rogier Blom, the project’s principal investigator, said: “Designing a floating turbine is like putting a bus on a tall pole, making it float and then stabilising it while it interacts with wind and waves. Doing this well is both a design and controls challenge.
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Photo by George Desipris, Pexels
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