30 October 2007
Floating wind turbines have a "huge potential" for Norway as part of a drive to export clean energy technology and diversify from oil, Petroleum and Energy Minister Aaslaug Haga said on Tuesday.
Haga said that Norway, the world's number five oil exporter, needed to develop renewable energies apart from hydroelectric power, which meets almost all domestic electricity demand.
"I think Norway should set a goal of being a big exporter of clean and renewable energy," Haga told a seminar during a meeting in Oslo of the Nordic Council grouping Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Norway.
"We can do this in many ways but one thing I believe we should research are sea-based wind turbines," she said. "They have a formidable potential."
Such turbines have advantages including that it is often windier at sea than on land. They could also be installed out of sight of land, defusing criticism that turbines on land are eyesores. Disadvantages are higher costs and maintenance.
Haga said that Norway could draw inspiration from nearby Denmark's success in building wind turbines and from Norway's expertise in offshore oil and gas.
Norway's StatoilHydro has been working on what it says would be the world's first floating wind turbine in a deal with German engineering group Siemens.
It says that a prototype could be in place in 2009 but that a broader project would depend on some form of subsidy to ensure that the power generated could compete with cheaper sources of electricity.
The StatoilHydro design is an upright steel tube with a concrete base about 200 meters (656 ft 2 in) long with 80 meters jutting above the water and three blades each 60 meters long.
The turbine is tethered to the seabed by three cables and could operate in waters 700 meters deep.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL3048916920071030
