Floating Contra-Rotating Wind Turbines That Can Produce Double the Energy

Company Develops Offshore Contra-Rotating Wind Turbine

Wind is an inexhaustible, clean resource. Capturing these powerful gusts is a critical component of many plans to replace fossil fuels with renewable, eco-friendly energy. Norwegian company World Wide Wind has designed an innovative floating, vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT). With two sets of “contra” blades, these turbines known as contra-rotating vertical turbines (CRVT) have the potential to double the output of traditional one-set turbines. They could offer a route to large-scale, less-expensive wind energy production.

Bobbing along while anchored at sea, the two sets of blades on the CRVT are connected to a rotor and a stator, the latter of which doubles the rotor's rotational speed. This produces more electricity. The towering turbines tilt with the wind, but their specially designed blades mean that they can be placed rather close together. Dense fields of CRVTs, unlike conventional wind turbines, can easily turn to meet the wind.

These turbines are also animal-friendly, especially given the slower speed of the blades. They can even be made in part from recycled materials. The unique CRVT can achieve a projected Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) under $50/MWh, less than half of what their traditional turbine counterparts are expected to deliver by 2027. “So you can increase your grid density and have more turbines in the same area, which is super important when it comes to area scarcity and offshore,” explains Elsbeth Tronstad to New Atlas. “You can think of that as a way to double your power generation, or as a way to reduce your generator cost by half. So it's lower cost, it's much more scalable, and any maintenance happens at the bottom and not hundreds of feet up in the air.” In short, these promising turbines are one more step in the march to renewable energy.