Article published February 11, 2015
Wind energy will be the next biggest clean form of energy. It is cleaner than fossil fuels and becoming easier to build. Though wind farms started on land, they are quickly moving offshore, where the rights are easier to obtain and the wind is steadier. Between 2006 and 2013, offshore wind energy grew by 33.9 percent. In the first half of 2014 alone, 224 wind turbines were connected to European land.
As it stands, offshore wind energy platforms use a base buried in the seabed, but cannot go deeper than 100 meters. When oil and gas faced similar problems, they changed to floating platforms. Though attempts have been made to create a floating wind turbine platform, none are as efficient as the fixed ones.
Currently, a group of scientists in Singapore at Lloyd's Register Global Technology Center are working to find a cost-efficient floating platform. They have completed the first phase of research, which consists of determining how to get the highest efficiency from a floating platform. The second phase will consist of taking these findings and creating a model that can stand its own in the wind farm market.
The team received favorable responses when they presented their research at the ASME International conference of Ocean, offshore, and Arctic Engineering last June.
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