Technology


One Wind Catcher in Norway has the power to produce 331GWh of energy annually, with that amount increasing up to 400GWh if the design is placed in windier locations.


design means that a Wind Catcher can be constructed for a 50-year lifetime rather than a 25-year one. “It’s the lifetime of the structure that’s the defining feature – not the lifetime of the individual components that may need to be changed,” he notes.


Other elements of the design aim to address the wind turbine industry’s environmental footprint. The lissome fibreglass blades currently used on monopile turbines are becoming a significant landfill issue. Specialised diamond saws are required to break them down into smaller pieces for transportation and disposal. Already, thousands are being buried each year and given their lack of biodegradability, they will effectively be there forever.


“Our ultimate goal is to produce aluminium blades for 100% [recyclability],” says Engelhart-Willoch. “It’s feasible because we have short blades, but you also have to find an efficient way to manufacture them, so we are working very closely with a big aluminium supplier.”


Increased efficiency and further benefits Innovations are not limited to the multi-rotor turbine concept. The whole platform has been carefully considered to provide the best use of available space and to remove the need for specialised maintenance, meaning that standard platforms can be used to bring parts and crew. Two on-board elevators will be available for box inspections, maintenance and even quick blade replacement. “We have an elevator system where you can inspect, maintain and do anything you need to do to the turbine as it is in the sail,” says Heggheim. “Currently, if you have a problem with a blade on a [monopile] floater, there is no technology where you can actually replace the blade from floater to floater. You have to tow it inshore, and that means that you could be out for three to six months depending on


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the position in the daisy chain – you risk stopping quite a lot of production.” Engelhart-Willoch also explains that the very large structures act as a self-contained ecosystem – having as much as possible on a single structure means fewer operations, fewer cables and so on. “We have more than 4,000m2


of available space,”


Heggheim says, “So we can certainly be an integrated high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) substation, but also a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) substation when that technology is ready – we don’t need an extra substation. We also have a lot of area for ‘power-to-x’ and batteries.”


He says that the 50-year life cycle and more efficient operations result in significant carbon savings. The environmental advantages, combined with more efficient use of space, should appeal to government watchdogs when assessing future renewable projects. As each Wind Catcher can replace five 15MW turbines, their acreage efficiency and production improvements are becoming increasingly attractive. “You can see that the regulators are wanting to have more acreage- efficient technology to preserve as much as they can for military purposes, for fishing, for shipping, for everybody,” says Heggheim.


The company is now working with developers on full-scale, reduced magnitude pilot schemes. “That could be a semi-commercial pilot, but it’s going to be a pilot where we demonstrate the technology and de-risk building at full scale,” says Heggheim. The project will then move on to a full-scale industrial demonstrator, with one or two Wind Catchers being used on a commercial basis. “I think it’s a great time,” he says. “The world really needs it and we need to do it rapidly. Between the UK and Norway, we have some of the best offshore wind resources in Europe – and we have a responsibility to make them available.” ●


World Wind Technology / www.worldwind-technology.com


Wind Catching Systems


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