A pan-European consortium led by the French wind company ASAH LM has been set up to develop the Spinfloat, a 6MW floating Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) with pitched blades, mounted on GustoMSC's semi-submersible Tri-Floater.
The programme will be carried out by a multidisciplinary consortium of six private and public organisations from five European countries: SSP Technology the Danish blade manufacturer, Fraunhofer IWES the German Institute for Wind Energy in charge of the drive train, GustoMSC the Dutch designer of mobile offshore units, ECN the Dutch energy research Institute and the Italian University Politecnico di Milano for wind tunnel testing. The venture is led by the French wind power specialist ASAH LM. This technology of floating wind turbine results from three major conclusions:
- Vertical axis rotors are more suited to the movement of a floater than conventional horizontal axis wind turbines;
- Pitched blades are mandatory to control the rotational speed in extreme winds and improve the aerodynamic efficiency;
- Braceless semi-submersibles provide the most cost-effective architecture of floater in terms of construction, inspection and maintenance.