WCS insights December 2023

Floating wind – More on less

Ole Heggheim, CEO, Wind Catching Systems

So much more of the future economy may find its foundations offshore, than the economy of the past decades. As we build new industries on the high seas, the need increases to find acreage efficient solutions. At Wind Catching Systems we have co-existence as a core value. The Windcatcher technology gives credit to that promise.

The Windcatcher system is designed with one primary thought in mind: Maximizing the energy yield per floating unit of offshore wind. With the ability to scale the system with the number of identical turbines, rather than with the size of each turbine, and the use of standardization and mass production that follows, the Windcather may concentrate a lot of power production. In fact, the largest models of the system may use only 1/5 of the acreage compared to using the largest available singe turbines available today in single-turbine configuration.

Using fewer units to produce the renewable energy also means that the eco-system impact is reduced. While a Windcatcher may be an impressively large structure, it is moored to the seabed in the same fashion as conventional systems. The Windcatcher technology thus has no larger impact on the seabed than a single-turbine system, but its impact on the energy transition is that much more profound. More for less, in short.

Reducing the ecosystem impact from new energies and achieving lasting co-habitation with the other industries in the ocean is not a nice-to-have in offshore wind, it is essential. That is why co-existence is a core value of Wind Catching Systems, and the Windcatcher delivers on that promise.