This marine giant will generate 15 megawatts of power, double that of the largest currently being used located at a wind farm in Emden, Germany.
Eleven companies and 22 Spanish research centers have joined together in the project “Azimut. Offshore Wind Energy 2020”. The goal is to generate the know-how required to develop the largest marine wind turbine in the world, using 100% Spanish technology.
The project is being coordinated by Gamesa. Other lead partners will include Alstom Wind, ACCIONA Windpower, Iberdrola Renovables and Acciona Energía; as well as Técnicas Reunidas, Ingeteam, Ingeciber, Imatia, Tecnitest Ingenieros y DIgSILENT Ibérica.
The Azimut project, supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation’s Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), will require a total investment of €25 million during the next four years, co-financed by the companies participating.
The initiative is expected to be completed in 2013. It aims to establish the technological groundwork for the subsequent development of a large-scale, offshore wind turbine that is expected by 2020. The initial goals are to achieve unitary power generation capacity of 15 MW, as well as overcoming the technological and economic barriers that currently limit the rollout of marine wind energy. Among the latter are availability, the foundations and energy delivery to land, in order to bring down the cost of marine wind energy to approach that of land sites.
Regarding the technological areas that the project will focus on, Gamesa will lead marine wind energy capture; ACCIONA Windpower will head electricity conversion technologies; Alstom Wind will be responsible for marine structures and substructures; ACCIONA Energía will manage the construction, operation and maintenance of offshore sites; and Iberdrola Renovables will be in charge of integrating offshore wind energy into the electricity grid.