WARP? Wind Power Technology for Offshore Oil & Gas Operation and Navigational Aids
Authors: Weisbrich A.L. , Rhodes A.F. 
Published: October 2008

The Wind Amplified Rotor Platform (WARP?) System design is being recognized as one of the significant new wind power technologies. After over $1 Million in analytical and test R&Q, this patented zero emission renewable energy technology has been cited a breakthrough by the National Regulatory Research Institute and was recently selected and proposed by Raytheon to the U.S. Department of Energy for electric utility application, An evaluation by the Department of Defense Advanced Research Project Agency stated it can potentially revolutionize wireless telecommunications. Featured in OFFSHORE, POWER ENGINEERING and FORTUNE magazines (Ref. I3), as well as selected the 1996 Best of What's New in Energy Technology by Popular Science, (Ref. 4) it is now being proposed under patent license to the oil & gas and navigation aid industries for use on nav-aids, offshore platforms and other installations in these industries. WARP description, test and analytical results will be presented along with potential offshore configuration performance and cost estimates.

Introduction

One of the key concerns for offshore marine installations is the high cost of operations. This stems in part from the hightransport cost of fuel for onboard power plants and the typically high maintenance cost associated with fossil fuel power plants such as diesels and gas turbines. Another key concern in today's ecologically conscious and regulated environment is the increasing regulatory costs of pollution emission. Application and enforcement of statutes like Title Yare becoming widespread and costly to the oil & gas industry. This adds another negative operational economic factor as well as a pronounced adverse public image issue.

In an attempt to help resolve these problems, traditional wind generators were explored offshore over a decade ago. However, problems with failure of their relatively long blades, requiredgearbox maintenance, personnel safety, their intrusive and structurally risky nature, and bird kill caused them to loose out in favor of photovoltaic (PY) solar power units. However, the drawbacks of small power output, orientation sensitivity and large space requirements of PY systems, has also restricted their widespread use for recovery of plentiful offshore indigenous renewable energy resources of wind and sun for offshore installations.

With the advent of WARP systems technology, augmented with significant government funded research and operational experience gained by the wind industry primarily through utilityscale wind farms, one can now capture and convert both wind and solar energy in an efficient, low cost, reliable and ergonomic manner through its cost saving, multi-tasking features provides excellent operational cost saving opportunities in connection with a multitude of offshore host installations and pipeline stations.

WARP Features & Benefits Description

The patented Wind Amplified Rotor Platform (WARP) system configuration, which consists of stacked Toroidal Accelerator Rotor Platform (TARP?) modules (Ref. 5–10) differs dramatically from traditional large-diameter horizontal-axis windmill rotors mounted on a tower. Yet the "smart tower" approach of WARP wind power system design draws heavily on the latest technology developments of today's high-efficiency horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT). This system isconceptually illustrated in Fig. 1 in relation to traditional windmills under electric utility application.