PREVIOUS CHALLENGE
Hywind installation
This page is available in English only
HYWIND®—Statoil’s floating wind turbine concept—has been designed to generate electricity offshore with minimal environmental impact. Hywind supports a wind turbine generator on a floating steel cylinder extending 80—100 metres beneath the surface of the sea.
To make Hywind available in more markets and at even lower cost, we wanted to improve assembly and installation. We sought proposals and novel technologies improving the way we install Hywind.
The evaluation of the proposals to the Hywind Installation Challenge has now been completed.
We would like to thank everyone who visited Statoil Innovate and showed interest in the challenge. We are especially grateful to all the innovators who contributed to the Hywind Installation Challenge.
Competition was tough with many innovative concepts, making the job of selecting the winning innovators very challenging for the evaluation team. After meetings with the shortlisted companies, it was decided to proceed with three and collaboration has been initiated to mature the ideas further.
Congratulations to the three winners who are Modec, Ulstein and Atkins.
Modec proposal:
The wind turbine and its tower can be fully assembled and commissioned onshore, and then transported to the site as one complete assembly. Twin "forks" extended from transportation vessel will pick up the assembly, transport it to the offshore site, and hold it in position while the preinstalled Spar is pulled up between the twin forks and connected to the tower.
Ulstein proposal:
Ulstein’s proposal is based on the Ulstein Windlifter system. This simple mechanical system for single lift installation of wind turbines for bottom fixed foundations has been adapted to work with the floating Hywind foundation.
Atkins proposal:
Atkins’ design utilises a reusable transportation frame and multiple turbines, enabling increased stability during assembly, transportation and maintenance at shallower drafts, assembly of turbines against a conventional quayside, and increased transport efficiency by towing multiple turbines simultaneously
