GE researchers have partnered with consultancy firm Glosten to develop a lightweight 12MW floating turbine.

The device is made up of 35% less mass in its tower and platform, an improvement believed to have lead to a ‘significant’ reduction of the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of the electricity generated from the turbine.

LCOE is a measure of the average cost of electricity generation for a plant during its lifetime.

The team has decreased the weight of the turbine by designing its tower with the floating platform and the controls system.

Rogier Blom, a Senior Principal Engineer in Model-Based Controls and the project’s principal investigator, said: “Designing a floating turbine is like putting a bus on a tall pole, making it float and then stabilizing it while it interacts with wind and waves. Doing this well is both a design and controls challenge.”