Floating Wind Turbine

A floating wind turbine mounts one or more offshore wind turbines on a floating structure rather than a foundation fixed to the seabed, letting it generate electricity in water too deep for a fixed-foundation turbine to reach economically or technically. The technology extends viable wind development into countries with little shallow water, including Spain, Portugal, Japan, France and the United States west coast, and into regions such as the United Kingdom that have already built out their shallow water sites, while also cutting visual impact from shore and leaving more room for fishing and shipping traffic, and reaching the stronger, steadier winds available further out to sea. More than 100 distinct floating design concepts exist, most built from steel or concrete substructures anchored to the seabed with steel chains or synthetic mooring ropes. As of October 2024 the world had 245 megawatts of floating wind capacity operating, including Norway Hywind Tampen farm, which began operating in August 2023 with 11 turbines supplying roughly 35 percent of the electricity used by five nearby oil and gas platforms, against a development pipeline of 266 gigawatts still to come, including the proposed 560 megawatt, 35-turbine Green Volt project off Scotland, which would be the world largest consented floating wind farm.