Stiesdal's TetraSpar floating wind demonstrator shows high capacity factor and availability
Demonstrator with 3.6MW Siemens Gamesa turbine reaches capacity factor of almost 63% and availability of 99.5% this year
Stiesdal Offshore Technologies TetraSpar floating wind power demonstrator has shown increasingly high capacity factor and availability, performance updates show.
“In its first two years of operation, the availability was recorded at 97.0% and 98.3%, respectively. For 2024, the availability has increased to 99.5% with a capacity factor of almost 63%.”
Stiesdal added that performance was robust even under challenging sea state conditions, such as during the Ingunn storm from January 31 to February 2 this year, when wind speeds reached up to 38 m/s and wave heights exceeded 13 metres.
The TetraSpar foundation is owned by TEPCO, Shell, RWE and Stiesdal Offshore, based on a concept of a building-block industrialised foundation arrangement invented by industry pioneer Henrik Stiesdal.
The prototype is the first to be conceived around factory piece-work with the platforms assembled quayside, mated with turbines and towed out to site for mooring and commissioning.
It is viewed as a key milestone for a sector shifting toward serial production and deployment in an effort to cut cost and speed up build-out in a number of maritime regions around the world.
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