Offshore Wind

China, the undisputed global leader in wind energy, has just set another world record for the tallest and highest capacity offshore wind turbine, taller than the Eiffel Tower, The Chrysler Building, and longer than the longest US aircraft carrier.

Mingyang Smart Energy said last week that it's installed “the world’s largest single-capacity offshore wind turbine” in a project in Hainan, China. The turbine delivers a power output of up to 20 MW, besting its previous 18 MW model from 2023.

Following successful trials last year at a UK wind farm, Denmark's Ørsted has now put heavy lift drones to work at a 94-turbine offshore wind farm in the North Sea – completing resupply missions up to 15 times faster while also reducing costs.

In the Belgian North Sea, maintenance vessels are now able to tether to an automatic cable at a wind farm to get their batteries topped up. The innovative system is the first of its kind and a major step in helping reduce emissions from shipping.

Wind Catching Systems has received an important tick of approval for its enormous 40-megawatt Windcatcher offshore floating wind turbine array, as it prepares to build a full size demonstrator project off the Norwegian coast.

These remarkable modular wind turbines stack themselves up section by section, removing the need for gigantic cranes and promising to slash the cost of offshore wind installation by as much as half. New investment has kicked off the first project.

Part of the exorbitant cost of offshore wind energy is the massive crane ships required to install the damn things – but Norwegian company Windspider has come up with a brilliantly lightweight crane system that promises to slash costs in half.

An experimental new undersea robot shows great promise for use in the upkeep of offshore renewable energy platforms. Because it has the ability to climb vertical underwater surfaces – and paint them – it's known as the Crawfish.

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T-Omega's pyramid-based floating wind turbines are designed with the sole common-sense focus of keeping the cost of offshore wind down to an absolute minimum. With wave tank testing done, the company has now launched its first real-world prototype.

Dutch ship builder Damen has announced an all-electric version of its 70-m-long hybrid service vessel designed to support offshore wind farm operations. And the company is aiming to charge the batteries direct from a wind turbine.

A wildly innovative turbine that could halve the cost of offshore wind is set to go into testing in Norway. The 19-m (62-ft), 30-kW, contra-rotating vertical-axis turbine is a prototype of a design that could scale to unprecedented size and power.