Located approximately 140 kilometers off the coast of Norway, it consists of 11 turbines and is expected to supply about 35% of the electricity needs for five nearby oil and gas platforms.

Blue H Technologies of the Netherlands deployed the world's first floating wind turbine, 21.3 kilometres (13.2 mi) off the coast of Apulia, Italy in December 2007.

[10][11] The 80 kW prototype was installed in waters 113 metres (371 ft) deep in order to gather test data on wind and sea conditions, and was decommissioned at the end of 2008.

[30][needs update] The first 2 MW Hitachi turbine became operational in November 2013,[31][32] and had a 32% capacity factor and a floating transformer (see also List of offshore wind farms in Japan).

[35] PivotBuoy received €4m EU funding in 2019, and installed a 225 kW[36] Vestas downwind turbine in 50-metre water depth at the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands in 2022.

The 2 MW DemoSATH project is a joint effort by Saitec Offshore Technologies, RWE, and the Kansai Electric Power Company.

The floating structure must provide enough buoyancy to support the weight of the turbine and to restrain pitch, roll and heave motions within acceptable limits.

[5] With empirical data obtained from fixed-bottom installations off many countries since the late 1990s, representative costs and the economic feasibility of shallow-water offshore wind power are well understood.

In 2009, shallow-water turbines cost US$2.4-3 million per megawatt to install, according to the World Energy Council,[16] while the practical feasibility and per-unit economics of deep-water, floating-turbine offshore wind was yet to be established.

[49] As of October 2010[update], feasibility studies supported that floating turbines are becoming both technically and economically viable in the UK and global energy markets.

[52] In California, offshore wind coincides well with evening and winter consumption, when grid demand is high and solar power is low.

[81] In 2018, NEDO announced two tenders to be launched aiming to support the development of both floating and fixed-bottom offshore wind projects in the country.

[83][84] In April 2012 Statoil received state regulatory approval to build a large four-unit demonstration wind farm off the coast of Maine.

[85] As of April 2013[update], the Hywind 2 4-tower, 12–15 MW wind farm was being developed by Statoil North America for placement 20 kilometres (12 mi) off the east coast of Maine in 140–158 metres (459–518 ft)-deep water of the Atlantic Ocean.

[86] The State of Maine Public Utility Commission voted to approve the construction and fund the US$120 million project by adding approximately 75 cents/month to the average retail electricity consumer.

The legislation required the Maine Public Utilities Commission to undertake a second round of bidding for the offshore wind sites with a different set of ground rules, which subsequently led Statoil to suspend due to increased uncertainty and risk in the project.

[100] In December 2022, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management awarded leases for 4.6 GW on 373,000 acres offshore California to 5 winners who are required to pay $750m.

Topics for research in this field include: As they are suitable for towing, floating wind turbine units can be relocated to any location on the sea without much additional cost.

[109] Floating wind turbines can be used to provide motive power for achieving artificial upwelling of nutrient-rich deep ocean water to the surface for enhancing fisheries growth in areas with tropical and temperate weather.

[110] Though deep seawater (below 50 meters depth) is rich in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, the phytoplankton growth is poor due to the absence of sunlight.

The construction of this project, France's first offshore wind turbine with a capacity of 2 MW, was completed in April 2018 and the unit installed on site in August 2018.

[113] In August 2018, Hibiki, the second demonstrator with an aerodyn Energiesysteme GmbH 3.2 MW 2-bladed wind turbine was installed 15 km east of the port of Kitakyushu by Japanese conglomerate Hitachi Zosen.

[116][117] During its deployment, it experienced numerous storm events representative of design environmental conditions prescribed by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) Guide for Building and Classing Floating Offshore Wind Turbines, 2013.

[119] In June 2016, the UMaine-led New England Aqua Ventus I project won top tier status from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Technology Demonstration Program for Offshore Wind.

[126] The subsea metal structure is reported to improve dynamic stability, whilst still maintaining shallow draft,[120] by dampening wave– and turbine–induced motion[127] utilizing a tri-column triangular platform with the wind turbine positioned on one of the three columns.

[140] Mingyang OceanX is designed with twin rotors to generate 16.6 MW and can withstand category 5 hurricane up to 260 km/hr winds with waves as high as 30 meters.

[143] Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy and 11 international partners started a 4-year program called DeepWind in October 2010 to create and test economical floating Vertical Axis Wind Turbines up to 20 MW.

[152] Nautica Windpower's Advanced Floating Turbine (AFT) uses a single mooring line and a downwind two-bladed rotor configuration that is deflection tolerant and aligns itself with the wind without an active yaw system.

It may overcome the limitations and challenges found in the current existing technologies used by wind farms: it attempts to remove the barriers related to water dept, reduce both CapEx and OpEx and enhance local content.

[10][158][159] Founded on original research and development work by NASA, Hamilton Standard (now United Technologies Corporation/Raytheon Technologies), Enel, and Aeritalia, Seawind's offshore wind power turbines with integrated foundations have been patented, proven at 1.5 MW – Gamma 60 wind turbine, and achieved Type D DNV GL certification in December 2019.