North American Windpower: Portugal Gets Its First Offshore Wind Turbine

Portugal Gets Its First Offshore Wind Turbine

by NAW Staff on Monday 18 June 2012

Principle Power, Energias de Portugal, Repsol, A. Silva Matos, Vestas Wind Systems and InovCapital have announced the inauguration of Portugal's first offshore wind turbine.

The turbine is installed on a floating foundation called the WindFloat. In addition to being the first offshore wind turbine in Portugal, this is the first offshore wind turbine to be installed without the use of heavy-lift vessels or piling equipment at sea, according to the companies involved in the project.

All final assembly, installation and pre-commissioning of the turbine and substructure took place on land in a controlled environment, and the complete system was then wet-towed offshore using simple tug vessels.

The WindFloat is equipped with a Vestas V80-2.0 MW wind turbine. The system is located 5 km off the coast of Agucadoura, Portugal, and has already produced in excess of 1.7 GWh, the companies say.

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