Energy start-up designs offshore wind turbine to double power generation

Norwegian startup World Wide Wind (WWW) has designed a new type of wind turbine that is gearing up for testing. These Counter-Rotating Vertical Turbines (CRVTs) have two independent sets of blades, spin on a vertical axis, and float on the sea with mooring lines that tether the turbines to the seafloor.

WWW boasts that its design has several key advantages over the prevailing wind turbines on the market. 

First, the new design uses a minimalist approach: the generator is placed at the bottom of the turbine and there are no gears. This simplifies repairs and allows the tower to be as tall as possible, with larger blades.

Secondly, the blades are designed to spin in a conical fashion which eliminates much of the turbulence common with horizontal axis turbines. As a result more turbines can occupy the same sea area, effectively doubling the energy density of a wind farm.

Third, the torque on the system is also effectively zero due to the counter-rotation of the blades. This forces the turbine to tilt towards an optimal angle and remain stable during rotation. As the turbine rotates, the rotor turns within the stator and produces energy, without the use of gears. 

WWW is planning to test a 62-feet prototype capable of generating 30 kilowatts of energy. If successful, the company intends to scale up to a 1.5-megawatt prototype in 2025 and eventually launch a commercially available 24-megawatt turbine in the not-too-distant future. 

Those sizes are large enough to surpass the dimensions of the largest wind turbines around today, but World Wide Wind claims their towers have the potential to reach even greater heights – up to 1,312 feet with 40-megawatt capacities. 

Unlike the wind turbine kits available on Amazon, WWW's mammoth towers will not be in public use anytime soon. According to Bjørn Simonsen, CEO of World Wide Wind, the first commercial wind farms based off CRVT technology are expected by 2030.