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Construction has already begun on Alpha Ventus, the first German offshore windplant.  The english language version is a bit behind the times...

but from here...

you can navigate to different live webcams of the process.  (On the right are listed the various views from FINO 1, the met and research station installed onsite a few years ago.)

The project will include updated/uprated versions of the turbines J financed, the REpower 5M (5MW), as well as the first use of the hybrid permanent magnet offshore turbine, the Areva Multibrid M5000.  Hybrid turbines attempt to combine the best of both standard geared design and gearless low speed generator design, naturally by compromising in the middle.

The entire Multibrid turbine and tower are pressurized to avoid sea air (salt) contamination, and the electrical components are attached to the tower instead of aloft in the nacelle, to save weight and cost.

As you can see from the photo, the tower is supported by a tripod structure, which rests on the sea bottom (with short piles) instead of the long 20-30m piles drilled into the seabed for conventional turbines.

For Europe (and not currently the rest of the world) offshore windpower is very important.  But it should not and must not be a substitute for the much more needed push for widespread development of the land-based resource first and foremost.  end of sermon.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Thu May 7th, 2009 at 05:59:30 PM EST
That thing is sort of really sexy looking.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill
by r------ on Thu May 7th, 2009 at 06:07:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"Erotic" was what I was about to write.

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
by marco on Thu May 7th, 2009 at 09:06:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I should have linked to my wind series and to this one: The unexpected weight of hope, with that tripod, and others:



In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu May 7th, 2009 at 06:25:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
These two Multibrids (the first test machines) are across the street and a small field from our wind tunnel in Bremerhaven.  Sweet view from the conference room.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
by Crazy Horse on Fri May 8th, 2009 at 08:01:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Can we have a picture of you under the base holding the whole thing up? - Just to prove the point that the financial underpinnings of the project are strong and that we can bank on you to ensure a strong foundation to withstand the winds of change in the markets and that it is in all our interest to capitalise on such projects...

No doubt the tripod structure was devised to ensue all the stakeholders were in alignment?

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Fri May 8th, 2009 at 10:13:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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