South Korea: STX Commissions First Offshore Direct Drive Wind Turbine

STX announces that it has commissioned the first offshore direct drive wind turbine and has completed a successful test run on Monday August 1st. STX’s first offshore direct drive wind turbine was installed under the project called ‘The demonstrative offshore windpark of Jeju island’. It sets a starting point for the future of the STX installed base.

The STX 72 2MW wind turbine, located in the southern sea region of Korea about 1,2 km off the Jeju island, is the first of several offshore projects that STX has planned. This project demonstrates the possibilities for upcoming offshore projects using direct drive technology, and supports further STX technology development.

The Korean Institute for Energy Research (KIER) installed the turbine under the supervision of STX Windpower B.V. This Dutch affiliate of the STX Group has designed multiple wind turbines, with the one on Jeju island being its first offshore application of the STX 72 turbine.

STX believes that its patented direct drive concept is ideal for the offshore conditions. Key technical advantages include low nacelle weight that allows easy installation and over-pressurized nacelle and direct drive permanent magnet generator which keeps out salt, moisture and other corrosive elements thus ensuring reliability and long life of electrical components. The air used to over-pressurize the wind turbine is dehumidified and desalinated by an air dryer installed in the nacelle of the turbine, thus making sure that the internal parts of the wind turbine do not suffer the corrosive effects of its operating environment.

STX is looking forward to develop more projects like this in the future. “This has been a crucial project for us, and it will help the entire wind power community – this being one of the first offshore direct drive wind turbine installations worldwide. We believe our technology is ideally suited for this demanding environment, and will have considerable impact on reducing the lifetime costs of offshore wind turbine installations. For the success of offshore wind, lower lifetime costs and increased reliability is key, and at STX we are working hard to achieve this”, says K.T. Yoo, CEO of STX Windpower B.V., and continues: “There has been a lot of interest from our customers worldwide. With this installation we can provide more thorough data on the performance of our unique direct drive technology, which will help our customers as they consider future projects.”

The STX Business Group is leveraging its global resources to serve its customers in wind energy. In addition to STX Windpower B.V., STX Europe is working on offshore projects through STX France, focusing on offshore foundations and STX Finland, focusing on turnkey delivery and lifecycle service of arctic offshore windparks.

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Source: STX, August 24, 2011;