Next-Gen Concepts in Offshore Wind

When it comes to offshore wind, there are a number of important ideas afloat, if you’ll pardon the pun.  Most of the concepts that will be implemented in the near-term are based on seabed mounting, and likely, most of them 20 years from now will be floating.  As it turns out, France is vying for world leadership in this arena; Dietswell, a French company specializing in engineering for the energy industry, is investing EUR 2.4 million in a semi-submersible platform for large offshore wind turbines.

Here’s a video featuring a 1/36th scale model of a floating platform that will eventually support a 50-ton, 6 MW turbine. From here, it’s hard to know whether this design will ultimately win the day, or whether its main value is the totally amazing French accents of the folks featured therein, which is worth a listen on its own merits.

FWIW, it certainly does seems credible that a triangular base will prove in the end to be best, for the same reason that we mount cameras on tripods, i.e., three non-colinear points determine a plane.