Design And Testing Of Offshore Wind Mill Laboratory Prototype Equipped With Semi – Submersible Platform And Its Comparison With Spar – Buoy Type

Abstract

India, as a developing country with its large population is the fourth largest consumer of energy. The nation relies majorly on non-renewable fossil fuels and hydro power for its energy production. But the major setback is the ever increasing demand of energy, which is not always met. So, like any other country, India is also on the lookout for alternative options of green energy resources, especially renewable. Second to solar, wind is the most available source of energy along the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka etc. The existing wind power plants are all land based on shore system. Off shore locations are being explored and researched on for possible construction of buoyant windmills. This paper focuses on building and testing two random hand-picked downsized models of such offshore plants to suit the local water bodies. The plants are provided with spar-buoy and a semi-submersible platform for floatation. The down scaling is done with respect to the existing 5 MW models developed by NREL. Floatation balance tests were conducted at various field locations in the college campus with LED lamp load rated at 12 V and 5 W. The observations show that both perform at their maximum output at the calm lake environment.