Dive Brief:
- DNV GL has assessed a new offshore wind turbine design developed by Siemens and confirmed it has the necessary safety features required by the Danish government, and can now be installed as a prototype.
- Siemens Wind Power's new 8 MW turbine design includes an upgraded generator, adjacent electrical system and an advanced control system.
- Offshore wind has grown in Europe and parts of Asia, as a new generation of turbines becomes cheaper and more effective. However, despite thousands of potential megawatts the industry is just getting started in the United States. The country's first offshore wind farm began operating last month.
Dive Insight:
The new Siemens offshore turbine design can now be installed at a test center for wind turbines in Denmark, bringing it a step closer to market. The next phase of testing will include a certification process crucial to the prototype going into wider use.
Upgrades to the design include increasing its output from 7 MW to 8 MW.
Morten Rasmussen, head of Siemens wind power technology, said in a statement that the new design is the "third evolution on the Offshore Direct Drive platform," and "truly marks the move towards industrializing offshore wind power."
Technically, the new SWT-8.0-154 turbine is an evolution of previous models, the SWT-6.0-154 and the SWT-7.0-154 turbines. DNV said the upgrade of the offshore direct drive wind turbine to MW is made possible through "the introduction of new magnet technology with an even higher grade."
As the efficacy of offshore turbines has grown, the global market has expanded. Despite the nascent state in the United States, larger turbines are being planned. A five-turbine, 30 MW facility offshore Rhode Island began operating in December. Massachusetts will provide a boost to the market, after the state passed a mandate for 1,600 MW of offshore capacity by 2027. That decision was hailed by many in the industry as "transformational."
There are more than 4,000 GWs of renewable energy potential off the United States coast.
