As the wind power industry looks to super-sized turbines, disruptors are betting on radical designs

Published

2 years ago

May 16, 2023

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Wind Catching Systems wants to develop a floating, multi-turbine system. This illustration shows what it could look like once deployed.

Wind Catching Systems

With their considerable height and sweeping blades, wind turbines are perhaps the most visually striking sign of the world’s shift to a more sustainable future.

Over the past few years, major players in the sector have developed huge new turbines, with the era of “super-sized” onshore and offshore structures appearing to be just round the corner.

While these massive pieces of kit are based on a familiar design that incorporates a tower, nacelle and blades, some firms are working on new ideas that, if built, would look very different indeed.

Wind Catching Systems is one of them. Established in 2017 and headquartered just outside the Norwegian capital of Oslo, it’s focused on the development of what it calls a “floating wind power plant based on a multi-turbine design.”

The overarching idea behind the Windcatcher system, as it’s known, relates to maximizing “power generation from a concentrated area.” The design also incorporates an elevator-based system for installing turbines and maintenance.

Illustrations of what the Windcatcher would look like are certainly striking, resembling a vast, water-based wall of rotating blades.

The potential scale of it is considerable. CEO Ole Heggheim said the “large model” would have a height of 300 meters (around 984 feet) and a width of 350 meters.

Such an iteration is some way off, however. While the large version of the Windcatcher would use 126 turbines of 1 megawatt, Heggheim said a planned pilot model will have “between seven and 12,” with the exact number to be decided over the next few months.

The plan is for a gradual scale-up. Following the pilot, Heggheim said his firm would “most likely build an intermediate size, probably around 40 megawatts, before we go for the large size.”

Floating tech

Floating offshore wind turbines are different from fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines, which are rooted to the seabed.

One advantage of floating turbines is that they can be installed in far deeper waters than fixed-bottom ones, and in recent years major economies like the U.S. have laid out goals to ramp up floating wind installations.

Firms like Wind Catching Systems are beginning to attract some notable backers as countries and companies around the world look to slash their emissions and hit net-zero goals.

In June 2022, the company said it entered into a strategic agreement with automotive giant General Motors and also secured investment from GM Ventures.

The agreement with GM, Wind Catching Systems said, related to “collaboration covering technology development, project execution, offshore wind policy, and the advancement of sustainable technology applications.”

Bird concerns

Over the past few years, the interaction between wind turbines and the natural world has generated a huge amount of discussion and debate, sometimes presenting hurdles to projects.

The effect on birds is a particular concern, with the U.K.-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds warning that wind farms “can harm birds through disturbance, displacement, acting as barriers, habitat loss and collision.”

It adds that “impacts can arise from a single development and cumulatively multiple projects.”

During his interview with CNBC, Heggheim attempted to highlight how his company’s design might mitigate any risk.

“We have a large structure behind the turbines [and] we hope that that will be a visual for the birds,” he said, explaining that there was also the opportunity to incorporate detection and deterrence systems on the structure.

“We are hopeful that we can make something that is more benign, if you like, for birdlife,” he said.

A crowded field

Designs such as the Windcatcher offer a glimpse into how wind energy could develop, and a range of ideas have been proposed over the past few years.

These include Vortex Bladeless’ system, which has a cylindrical mast and does not use blades, and Kitemill, which has developed a design centered on a kite-like system tethered to the ground. Elsewhere, businesses like SeaTwirl are working on a vertical-axis floating turbine.

There is excitement about the potential of such proposals, but it seems a long road lies ahead when it comes to challenging the dominance of the onshore and offshore turbines of today.

“The role of new turbine models and innovation in turbine design should not be neglected,” Christoph Zipf, press manager at industry body WindEurope, told CNBC via email.

“It is good that the wind industry keeps exploring new paths and innovative solutions,” Zipf said. “But as things stand today the “traditional” wind turbine, the three-bladed, horizontal axis turbines will continue to lead the way.”

He added that such turbines are dominating all “competitive projects” in offshore, floating and onshore wind. “They offer the greatest electricity output at the lowest price.”

Disrupting the wind power industry is a colossal task that will require significant investment, time and patience.

Like other marine-based technologies, floating offshore wind faces a range of challenges, not least the incredibly harsh environment turbines need to operate in.

Wind Catching Systems’ Heggheim was, however, optimistic about the future. “We definitely want to be mainstream,” he said.

Whether the company’s plans bear fruit remains to be seen, but its journey over the next few months and years will be an interesting one to watch.

Environment

Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

Published

10 hours ago

April 2, 2025

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

In a joint statement, the French CAE and the German Council of Economic Experts have called for "a common approach" by France and Germany in the decarbonisation of road freight transport. And in doing so, the experts are clearly committed to battery-electric trucks.

In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.

France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.

At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.

And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:

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While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.

FRANCO-GERMAN COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS (FGCEE)

That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.

“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”

The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.

You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.

Electrek’s Take

Hydrogen-sceptical truck maker MAN to produce limited series of 200 vehicles with H2 combustion engines — MAN hydrogen semi; via MAN Trucks.

MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.

He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”

With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.

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Environment

Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

Published

11 hours ago

April 2, 2025

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

On today’s tariff-tastic episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got tariffs! Big ones, small ones, crazy ones, and fake ones – but whether or not you agree with the Trump tariffs coming into effect tomorrow, one thing is absolutely certain: they are going to change the price you pay for your next car … and that price won’t be going down!

Everyone’s got questions about what these tariffs are going to mean for their next car buying experience, but this is a bigger question, since nearly every industry in the US uses cars and trucks to move their people and products – and when their costs go up, so do yours.

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New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Environment

SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

Published

13 hours ago

April 1, 2025

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

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