UK and Spanish Firms Race to Build the World’s Largest Offshore Wind Turbine

Gamesa is now saying it will lead a €25 million project to build a turbine even bigger than the massive Britannia machine. The group, which is made up of a bunch of Spanish firms, has jump started a project that will see a massive 15MW wind turbine.

Turbine manufacturer Gamesa went on to confirm it is currently leading this project. Right now it has been dubbed Azimut. However, the company is not doing it alone. They are running alongside 11 other wind and engineering firms and 22 research centers. They noted that the research project will require a total of €25 million over the next four years.

The main responsibilities of this project are going to be divided between five firms. Gamesa will be heading work on wind capture, Acciona Windpower will be responsible for electricity conversion, Acciona Energía will be heading up construction, Alstom Wind will be in charge of managing the substructures, and Iberdrola Renovables will be developing the grid connection.

The timetable for this massive project is slated to be done by 2013. However, the Azimut group said it hopes to have established the technological groundwork to build the machine by 2020. The project is also being backed by the Spanish government’s Center for the Development of Industrial Technology. It is designed to help the industry overcome some of the technical and financial hurdles currently limiting the rollout of offshore wind energy.

Gamesa just recently said that the most pressing of these obstacles are availability, turbine foundations and, of course, energy delivery to land. These are problems that they are hoping will be fixed thanks to this project.