Atkins, MODEC and Ulstein have been named as winners of Statoil’s most recent innovation campaign, the Hywind Installation Challenge. The chosen designs are now undergoing further study to help mature the winning concepts.
The Innovation Challenge campaign looked to others within the energy sector to make the Hywind concept available in more markets around the world.
The Hywind demonstrator was launched in 2009 as the world’s first full scale floating offshore wind demonstration unit, and a 30MW pilot park is planned for installation off the coast of Scotland in 2017, using five 6MW turbines.
With plans for even bigger arrays of turbines in the future, Statoil launched the Installation Challenge to look at options to improve the Hywind turbines assembly and installation sequence to make the concept more cost efficient and available in more markets around the world.
Image: Statoil