After Zephyros acquisitioned Unitech Zephyros-One (formerly “Hywind demo”), the world’s first offshore floating wind turbine off the coast of Norway, in 2019, technological development has progressed rapidly.
Today, Zephyros is the first company in the world to mount a helicopter deck on an offshore floating wind turbine.
– This is crucial to reduce operating costs for floating offshore wind, says Bernt Hellesøe an industrial developer and owner of Zephyros.
Zephyros-One was the world’s first offshore floating wind turbine. Today, Zephyros-One is part of The Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre), a demonstration plant in Haugesund leading the testing of floating energy production. The METCentre is currently the only place in Norway where offshore floating wind turbines are connected to the power grid on land.
On 20 September 2022, METCentre received a license to expand the capacity for testing floating energy production outside Karmøy. The approval now covers a total of 7 turbines with the accompanying cable for power generation. The extension is valid for a full 25 years.
The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) writes in its approval that The demonstration plant will be able to make a significant contribution to the government’s national investment in offshore wind. NVE has also emphasized that the facility can be used to gather knowledge about negative effects, so that future major developments can take place in the best possible way. NVE has set a number of conditions to increase knowledge about offshore wind and other sea-based energy production.
– We are happy and proud to be an important contributor to this important work. We have 40 years of experience from offshore industrial construction, and we will take this with us when we now test, and build, offshore floating wind farms off the Norwegian coast, says Mr Hellesøe.