Eleven companies and 22 research centres specializing in offshore wind energy technologies have joined forces to develop what could become the world's largest marine wind turbine using 100% Spanish technology.

The Azimut Offshore Wind Energy 2020 project, scheduled to be finalized in 2013, seeks to establish the technological groundwork for the subsequent development in around 2020 of a large-scale offshore wind turbine with unit capacity of 15 MW.

The project is intended to address a number of technical and financial hurdles currently limiting the roll out of offshore wind energy.

The most pressing of these obstacles are turbine foundations and energy delivery to land. The key challenge is narrowing the gap between offshore energy's cost and required investment and those of onshore wind energy sites.

The project will be coordinated by Gamesa, Spain's largest wind energy company. Lead partners will be Alstom Wind, Acciona Windpower, Iberdrola Renovables and Acciona Energía. Other participants include Técnicas Reunidas, Ingeteam, Ingeciber, Imatia, Tecnitest Ingenieros and DIgSILENT Ibérica.

Gamesa will head activities related to offshore wind energy capture, Acciona Windpower will be responsible for electricity conversion technologies; Alstom Wind will manage the marine structure and substructure segment; Acciona Energía will head construction, operation and maintenance at offshore sites; with Iberdrola Renovables managing the integration of offshore wind energy into the electricity grid.

Azimut was approved by Spain's Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), a unit of the Science and Innovation Ministry, as part of the sixth round of research and development (R&D) grants provided by the Cenit (National Strategic Consortium in Technical Research) Programme.

The project will involve a total investment of 25 million euros over the next four years and will be co-financed by the participating companies.

Through this project, the participating companies will reinforce Spain's commitment to R&D in offshore wind energy as a vehicle for achieving global technological leadership in offshore wind energy.

Source: www.gamesacorp.com