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Soon the factory will set about a new task, manufacturing components for a different kind of turbine, designed by Stiesdal, that bobs on the open sea. These structures promise to put the strong, consistent gusts that blow over deep waters within reach for the first time. The turbines now found around Denmark, England, and the other coastlines of the North Sea are made for shallow water and require large underwater structures to fasten them in place. \u201cNormal places don\u2019t have shallow water near population centers\u2014they have deep water,\u201d says Stiesdal, a legendary turbine inventor and former executive at some of Europe\u2019s biggest wind companies. This situation renders many coastal places unsuitable for wind power. \u201cWe could power California many times over with their offshore resource,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it all has to be floating.\u201d<\/p>\n
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If the next generation of wind farms can float, and if costs can be kept low, it could usher in an era of almost unlimited, emission-free energy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that floating wind turbines could help provide enough electricity to satisfy the world\u2019s electricity needs 11 times over, based on expected power demand in 2040.<\/p>\n
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At 63, Stiesdal has taken every step in the modern evolution of wind power. As a young man he designed the first turbine and later took part in the introduction of the first offshore wind farm, creating what\u2019s now one of the fastest-growing forms of renewable energy. He\u2019s seen global wind capacity grow from virtually nothing in 1978 to more than 600 gigawatts today, according to BloombergNEF data.<\/p>\n
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As 2019 ended, about three-quarters of global offshore capacity lay in Europe, mostly clustered around the U.K. and Germany. This regional dominance owes partly to the North Sea\u2019s relative shallowness. Although similar waters off China, Vietnam, and the eastern U.S. seaboard could someday add more wind farms using established technology, there\u2019s greater potential farther offshore. Many more places, including California, Japan, and South Korea, have heavy power needs, big ambitions to lower emissions, and deep seas. Not to mention that people tend to complain\u2014loudly\u2014about turbines within eyesight of the shore. The open sea isn\u2019t in anyone\u2019s backyard.<\/p>\n
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Now Stiesdal is among those bringing about the floating-energy future. With offshore wind power increasingly competitive with the price of fossil fuels, expansion into deeper waters could help rid electric grids of carbon emissions for good. \u201cI had some bad moments thinking about the climate,\u201d he says. \u201cThe politicians will not solve it. We need to solve it ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
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After he finished high school in rural Denmark in the late 1970s, Stiesdal heard about a nearby teachers\u2019 college that was running an experiment to generate electricity from wind. He decided to try making a model turbine in his family\u2019s home. He built the first blades from steel and high-grade nylon, working on the living room floor as his mother knitted on the sofa.<\/p>\n
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The first turbine he made was small enough that he could lift it with one hand. \u201cOnce you got it spinning, it got to be alive, and you could feel all the small things in the wind,\u201d Stiesdal recalls. \u201cI was hooked.\u201d It worked well enough that he got a local machinist to help him build a bigger version that could provide power to his family\u2019s farm.<\/p>\n
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A few years later, with more tinkering, he\u2019d scaled up to a point that it took two people to carry a blade. Executives from a local manufacturer of hydraulic cranes came over to check out his turbines and drink coffee. Replacing expensive, polluting fossil fuels with wind made sense, even before climate change became a pressing concern.<\/p>\n
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Stiesdal struck a licensing agreement with the executives, which eventually led to mass production and later a full rebranding as Vestas Wind Systems A\/S. The company is the world\u2019s largest wind turbine manufacturer, with more than $13 billion in revenue last year. In its official corporate history, Vestas acknowledges that its earliest efforts\u2014designed to look like an egg whisk\u2014failed to produce enough electricity to be viable. But Stiesdal\u2019s prototypes, the company writes, are \u201cessentially the same three-blade model used today.\u201d And not only by Vestas: The same configuration is used all over the world, by scores of manufacturers.<\/p>\n
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The inventor worked with Vestas until the mid-1980s, then went on to a job at Bonus Energy, a Danish turbine company that was later bought by German industrial giant Siemens AG. That\u2019s where he orchestrated the introduction in 1991 of the first offshore turbines able to withstand harsh conditions at sea. \u201cHe\u2019s like the godfather of wind,\u201d says Tom Harries, who analyzes the sector for BNEF.<\/p>\n
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Offshore turbines are now scattered around the world by the thousands, the product of billions of dollars of investment. The latest and largest, an 860-foot-high machine from Siemens Gamesa that will be tested next year in northern Denmark, is almost as tall as New York\u2019s Chrysler Building. As turbines have multiplied and spread, costs have fallen sharply\u2014down more than 60% in the last decade.<\/p>\n
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In the next two decades, the IEA expects the offshore industry to attract $840 billion\u2014almost as much investment as natural gas. Most of the biggest developers right now are European power companies such as Denmark\u2019s Orsted, Germany\u2019s RWE, and Spain\u2019s Iberdrola, which have increasingly shifted away from fossil fuels. In China, the second-biggest offshore market after Europe, companies such as China Ming Yang Wind Power Group Ltd. and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Ltd. have sold hundreds of turbines domestically.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe cork is coming off the bottle,\u201d Stiesdal says. \u201cWith the cost reductions we\u2019re seeing, we\u2019re outcompeting with all kinds of fuels. You can\u2019t build gas-fired plants and coal plants and nuclear plants that can match wind.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A successful floating platform would push open new wind markets and potentially generate billions of dollars of turbine contracts. The earliest glimpses of this future, ironically, come from pilot projects started by fossil fuel companies, which have long expertise in extracting resources from the seabed using platforms. Designs for wind versions vary, but the most prevalent use steel or concrete to support a single turbine. Some models have a tube shape, with a turbine on one corner. Others look more like a buoy, with a turbine bobbing on top. The main engineering challenge is keeping the machine in the right position; a slight rotation can move the blades out of the wind. The designs rely on cables and anchors to keep the platforms in the right spot. Buoyant turbines fitted with anchors can be put out at sea in water as deep as 1,000 meters (3,281 feet).<\/p>\n
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On the economic side, \u201cthe key bottleneck is the floating foundation,\u201d says Jason Cheng, managing partner at private equity firm Kerogen Capital. \u201cWe think that\u2019s where a great amount of the value will be captured.\u201d Kerogen mostly invests in fossil fuels, but it\u2019s taken a stake in Ideol, a French platform developer. Cheng says he liked that floating wind draws on proven technologies. \u201cBecause it\u2019s already been developed in oil and gas, we know what those solutions could look like.\u201d<\/p>\n
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If floating platforms are to help wind power achieve anything like the almost unlimited capacity anticipated by the IEA, companies will have to bring down costs. Floating introduces a whole new expense in the manufacture and installation of platforms, in part because mooring cables get more expensive as water gets deeper. Transportation costs could be lower, because floating platforms can be towed from port rather than erected at sea, but that\u2019s not enough to offset the cost of a technology that isn\u2019t designed for mass production. \u201cIt\u2019s not copy-paste from oil and gas,\u201d says Manahil Lakhmiri, head of offshore wind at Engie, which is working with California-based Principle Power Inc. on a floating pilot project off Portugal. \u201cWhat we see today is there\u2019s one floater made every three months,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe need one floater per week.\u201d<\/p>\n
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That\u2019s a problem Stiesdal has solved before. The turbines he helped pioneer proved quite scalable\u2014they became as prevalent as they did because their components could be produced quickly and cheaply. His new floating platform, dubbed TetraSpar and backed by oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc and German utility Innogy SE, aims to industrialize the industry. He\u2019s also working with Welcon A\/S, one of the largest turbine tower manufacturers. That\u2019s allowed Stiesdal, an independent inventor, to create a prototype at factory speeds.<\/p>\n
gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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