A Norwegian company is working on a wall of floating wind turbines

With their considerable height and sweeping blades, wind turbines are perhaps essentially the most visually striking sign of the world’s shift to a more sustainable future.

Over the past few years, major players within the sector have developed huge latest turbines, with the era of “super-sized” onshore and offshore structures appearing to be just not far away.

While these massive pieces of kit are based on a well-known design that includes a tower, nacelle and blades, some firms are working on latest ideas that, if built, would look very different indeed.  

Wind Catching Systems is certainly one of them. Established in 2017 and headquartered just outside the Norwegian capital of Oslo, it’s focused on the event of what it calls a “floating wind power plant based on a multi-turbine design.”

The overarching idea behind the Windcatcher system, because it’s known, pertains to maximizing “power generation from a concentrated area.” The design also incorporates an elevator-based system for installing turbines and maintenance.

Illustrations of what the Windcatcher would appear to be are actually striking, resembling an unlimited, water-based wall of rotating blades.

The potential scale of it’s considerable. CEO Ole Heggheim said the “large model” would have a height of 300 meters (around 984 feet) and a width of 350 meters.

Such an iteration is a few way off, nevertheless. While the big version of the Windcatcher would use 126 turbines of 1 megawatt, Heggheim said a planned pilot model can have “between seven and 12,” with the precise number to be decided over the subsequent few months.

The plan is for a gradual scale-up. Following the pilot, Heggheim said his firm would “most definitely construct an intermediate size, probably around 40 megawatts, before we go for the big size.”

Floating offshore wind turbines are different from fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines, that are rooted to the seabed.

One advantage of floating turbines is that they will be installed in far deeper waters than fixed-bottom ones, and lately major economies just like the U.S. have laid out goals to ramp up floating wind installations.

In June 2022, the corporate said it entered right into a strategic agreement with automotive giant General Motors and likewise secured investment from GM Ventures.

The agreement with GM, Wind Catching Systems said, related to “collaboration covering technology development, project execution, offshore wind policy, and the advancement of sustainable technology applications.”

More recently, in February 2023, the corporate announced it was awarded a pre-project grant of 9.3 million Norwegian krone (around $872,500) from Enova, which is owned by Norway’s Ministry of Climate and Environment.

Wind Catching Systems said the grant would “support the initial implementation of a full-scale Windcatcher.”

“Through the pre-project, Wind Catching Systems will mature and validate the technology and value estimates for a full-scale Windcatcher,” it added.

Over the past few years, the interaction between wind turbines and the natural world has generated an enormous amount of dialogue and debate, sometimes presenting hurdles to projects.

The effect on birds is a selected concern. The web site of the U.K.-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds states that while wind power “is one of the vital advanced renewable technologies” wind farms can nevertheless “harm birds through disturbance, displacement, acting as barriers, habitat loss and collision.”

It adds that “impacts can arise from a single development and cumulatively multiple projects.”

With a purpose to minimize the consequences of each offshore and onshore facilities, the organization stresses the importance of “strategic planning which internet sites renewables within the least sensitive areas and … [assesses] ecological impacts on the very start of the method.”

The RSPB goes on to state that it’s calling for a “more strategic and long-term approach to wind development — which can profit nature and climate.”

During his interview with CNBC, Heggheim attempted to focus on how his company’s design might mitigate any risk.  

“We’ve got a big structure behind the turbines [and] we hope that that will probably be a visible for the birds,” he said, explaining that there was also the chance to include detection and deterrence systems on the structure.

“We’re hopeful that we are able to make something that’s more benign, for those who like, for birdlife,” he said.

Designs equivalent to the Windcatcher offer a glimpse into how wind energy could develop, and a spread of ideas have been proposed over the past few years.

These include Vortex Bladeless’ system, which has a cylindrical mast and doesn’t use blades, and Kitemill, which has developed a design centered on a kite-like system tethered to the bottom. Elsewhere, businesses like SeaTwirl are working on a vertical-axis floating turbine.

There may be excitement in regards to the potential of such proposals, nevertheless it seems a protracted road lies ahead on the subject of difficult the dominance of the onshore and offshore turbines of today.

“The role of latest turbine models and innovation in turbine design mustn’t be neglected,” Christoph Zipf, press manager at industry body WindEurope, told CNBC via email.

“It is nice that the wind industry keeps exploring latest paths and revolutionary solutions,” Zipf said. “But as things stand today the “traditional” wind turbine, the three-bladed, horizontal axis turbines will proceed to cleared the path.”

He added that such turbines are dominating all “competitive projects” in offshore, floating and onshore wind. “They provide the best electricity output at the bottom price.”

Disrupting the wind power industry is a colossal task that may require significant investment, time and patience.

Like other marine-based technologies, floating offshore wind faces a spread of challenges, not least the incredibly harsh environment turbines must operate in.

Wind Catching Systems’ Heggheim was, nevertheless, optimistic in regards to the future. “We definitely need to be mainstream,” he said.

Whether the corporate’s plans bear fruit stays to be seen, but its journey over the subsequent few months and years will probably be an interesting one to observe.