Autonomous roaming offshore wind turbine

An autonomous roaming offshore wind turbine (AROWT) comprising:

• a floating hull;
• a lifting keel extending outwardly from an underside of the hull;
• ballast;
• a propeller mounted to a portion of the hull;
• and
• a wind turbine mounted to an upper side of the hull opposite the underside thereof;
• wherein when deployed in a body of water, the AROWT moves in a figure-eight station-keeping pattern;
• and
• wherein when moving in the figure-eight station-keeping pattern, the AROWT includes:
• a wind turbine having a rated power between 5 MW and 25 MW;
• a rated wind speed of between 8 m/s and 20 m/s;
• a wind turbine blade diameter within the range of 100 m to 300 m;
• a lifting keel depth of between 30 m and 100 m;
• a hull speed to wind speed ratio of between 0.05 and 0.5;
• a pattern beam to wind turbine blade diameter ratio of between 0.5 and 10.0;
• and
• a pattern beam to pattern surge ratio of between 0.01 and 0.5.

An autonomous roaming offshore wind turbine (AROWT) comprising:

• a floating hull;
• a lifting keel extending outwardly from an underside of the hull;
• ballast;
• a propeller mounted to a portion of the hull;
• and
• a wind turbine mounted to an upper side of the hull opposite the underside thereof;
• wherein when deployed in a body of water, the AROWT moves in a figure-eight station-keeping pattern;
• and
• wherein when moving in the figure-eight station-keeping pattern, the AROWT includes:
• a wind turbine having a rated power between 5 MW and 25 MW;
• a rated wind speed of between 8 m/s and 20 m/s;
• a wind turbine blade diameter within the range of 100 m to 300 m;
• a lifting keel depth of between 30 m and 100 m;
• a hull speed to wind speed ratio of between 0.05 and 0.5;
• a pattern beam to wind turbine blade diameter ratio of between 0.5 and 10.0;
• and
• a pattern beam to pattern surge ratio of between 0.01 and 1.0.

An autonomous roaming offshore wind turbine (AROWT) comprising:

• a floating hull;
• a lifting keel extending outwardly from an underside of the hull;
• ballast;
• a propeller mounted to a portion of the hull;
• and
• a wind turbine mounted to an upper side of the hull opposite the underside thereof;
• wherein when deployed in a body of water, the AROWT moves in a figure-eight upwind travel pattern at an upwind travel velocity.

An autonomous roaming offshore wind turbine (AROWT) comprising:

• a floating hull;
• a lifting keel extending outwardly from an underside of the hull;
• ballast;
• a propeller mounted to a portion of the hull;
• and
• a wind turbine mounted to an upper side of the hull opposite the underside thereof;
• wherein when deployed in a body of water, the AROWT moves in a figure-eight downwind travel pattern at a downwind travel velocity.