Floating outlook for SeaTwirl and Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines

Vertical-axis wind turbines have so far been relegated to margins of the wind power industry. That might change when floating wind farms starts to get established, experts says to Green Tech Media.

The article about vertical-axis wind turbines starts with the recent spate of good news from SeaTwirl – with yesterday’s news about a Chinese patent as the most recent example. The advantage that SeaTwirl and other vertical-axis wind turbines share is the low centre of gravity that allows for a smaller floating platform. That holds the potential for big cost savings, concluded Sandia National Laboratories in a study last year.

“For floating offshore wind, the platform is the single largest contributor to the levelized cost of electricity”, says Dr Brandon Ennis at Sandia to GTM.

Read the article here.