Floating wind turbine may be in N.Sea by 2009: Hydro

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - The world's first floating wind turbine could be generating electricity in the North Sea in 2009 under a research pact on Monday between Norwegian energy group Norsk Hydro and German engineering firm Siemens.

Floating wind turbines would represent a technological breakthrough for offshore power generation, which has had to rely on shallow sites for turbines installed on the seabed.

"It's attractive to have windmills out at sea, out of sight of land, away from birds' migration routes," said Alexandra Bech Gjoerv, head of Hydro's New Energy division at a signing ceremony to develop floating wind turbine technology.

"We want to build the world's first offshore floating windmill," Bech Gjoerv said. "We want to produce a lot of energy, out of sight."

Under the plan, Hydro will combine its knowledge of floating installations, such as North Sea loading buoys for oil tankers, with Siemens' expertise in building turbines, both on land and standing in shallow waters offshore.

Floating wind turbines are more costly than on land but could supply power both to offshore oil or gas platforms or to coastal cities, cutting emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and defusing objections that turbines are eyesores.

Hydro said a prototype, costing 200 million crowns ($33.64 million), could be in place in the North Sea in 2009 assuming the firm agreed funding this year. The timetable is two years' later than hoped when Hydro unveiled a floating design in 2005.

If tests of the 5 megawatt wind turbine were successful, a small offshore wind park could be built around 2013-14. Siemens said it would spend several million euros (dollars) on the research project, on which Hydro has already spent 30 million crowns.