The flagship machine, a jacket-based two-bladed model with a 140-metre diameter rotor from German designer aerodyn, would become only the second full-scale prototype installed off Norway, after Statoil’s 2.3MW Hywind floater in 2009.

Final sign-off on the pilot project, which Recharge understands could be expanded to encompass an array of the machines at the Karmoy demonstration area in the North Sea, is expected by "late 2014".

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