Equinor intends to deploy Wind Semi, a modern floating wind turbines foundation for its proposed 1 GW floating wind scheme in Scotland. The deployment will only happen if the corporation emerges as one of the seabed lease winners in the ScotWind auction. The semisubmersible wind turbine foundation, Wind Semi, is designed with flexibility, specifically for easier assembly and fabrication based on local supply chain potentiality. The idea has several features making it particularly best suited in harsh waters, and solutions that can optimise the opportunities for the Scottish supply chain.
According to Equinor, introduction of a passive ballast system, the Wind Semi has a easy substructure design, lowering the risk of system failure and maintenance cost needed. Its flat plate model is free from bracings, heave plates and complex nodes that are subject to fatigue cracking, and enables the substructure to be developed in blocks that can either be fabricated locally and/or shipped from other regions. With a harbour draught of lower than 10 metres, the Wind Semi’s turbine integration can be fabricated at most industrialised ports.
Read also:Teesside wind turbine factory under construction in UK.
Equinor’s Wind Semi
Equinor emphasized that it was technology agnostic and would pick out the best suited floating wind concept for its schemes, with depth of the water, conditions near shipyards and ports, specialisations and capacity of the local supply chain being main reasons for selecting a given model. Equinor stated it was bidding in the ScotWind auction in July, adding it was a good strategic fit with its objectives to continue to build its North Sea offshore wind cluster and further grow its presence in the UK.
World’s first floating wind farm to be constructed
Equinor installed the first ever floating offshore wind turbine back in 2009, and runs the 30 MW Hywind Scotland which is the world’s first floating wind farm to be constructed. Ealier in March, Equinor revealed that the wind farm had reached the highest average capacity factor for any wind farm in the United Kingdom in its third consecutive year, setting a new record in the country.
