Italy Orders Up Weird Floating Offshore Wind Energy Harvesters

Energy planners in Italy sure know a good thing when they see it, and that thing is floating offshore wind power. The floating wind field is a relatively new one, but Italy has just put in for an ambitious order of 7,100 megawatts from a new joint venture anchored by the startup Hexicon, which is marketing a floating wind platform that sports two wind turbines instead of just one.

Hexicon: Two Heads Are Better Than One

Hexicon’s two-headed floating offshore wind harvester came across the CleanTechnica radar in May of 2021, under the name TwinWind. We also took note of the company back in 2012, when it introduced a concept for floating 46 turbines out to sea on one platform.

Apparently that rather ambitious 46-turbine idea has been refined down to two, which makes sense from a maintenance perspective. The 46 turbines were small. They were good for a total of just 54 megawatts, and you can just imagine the maintenance issues over time.

The new platform can support a respectable 30 megawatts or more from just two of today’s supersized wind turbines.

Among other advantages, the Hexicon two-seater can pack more turbines into one area. The company cites an increase of up to 75% more electricity per area.

The two-headed configuration helps to reduce overall costs, including maintenance, anchorage, and cable.

Subscribers can read the full article here: Italy Orders Up Weird Floating Offshore Wind Energy Harvesters

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Photo (screenshot): Floating offshore wind turbines courtesy of Hexicon.

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Source: Clean Technica