Radical engineering paves way for thousands of offshore deepwater wind turbines
Friday, 20 November 2009
Radical new designs shortlisted in a global competition run by the UK’s Carbon Trust are set to accelerate the installation of thousands of wind turbines around Britain’s coast by slashing the costs of construction and opening up deeper waters for development.
Over 100 engineering companies from around the world submitted their ideas on how to cost effectively build offshore wind turbines in severe weather conditions as far as 100 miles out to sea and in waters up to 60m deep. Each design was rigorously assessed by an expert panel of judges including the Carbon Trust’s partners: Airtricity Developments, DONG Energy, RWE Innogy owner of Npower Renewables, Scottish Power Renewables and Statoil.
The seven new foundation designs have the potential to revolutionise the construction of offshore wind farms, reducing costs and overcoming engineering challenges currently facing the industry. They provide a glimpse of the future with radical concepts such as floating turbines anchored to the sea bed and spider-like tripod structures.
Lower costs are vital if Britain is to install the 6,000 or so offshore wind turbines needed to ensure offshore wind meets a quarter of our electricity needs by 2020. The current price tag is up to £75bn with deep water foundations accounting for 20% or more of a wind farm’s total project costs. The goal of the new designs is to reduce the current costs of foundations by at least a quarter. This will save billions of pounds and enable the industry to deploy turbines in the much deeper and rougher sea conditions that will be experienced by the significantly larger offshore wind projects beginning in 2012 as part of the Crown Estate’s third round of licensing.
Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust, said:
“Building thousands of turbines offshore to provide a quarter of our power needs is the greatest engineering challenge we face in the coming decade. Without new thinking to cut costs many planned projects could remain on the drawing board putting our carbon targets and energy security at risk. We must urgently re-engineer our energy system and building offshore wind farms while creating onshore jobs must play a central role.”
The Carbon Trust said that the winds blowing off Britain’s coasts are some of the most powerful on the globe and must be harnessed to ensure the UK reaches its target of 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020. Round 3 presents even more treacherous conditions than any wind farm sites to-date around the UK’s coast, which makes building and operating future wind farms offshore an expensive business.
Rob Hastings, Director of the marine estate at The Crown Estate said:
“Offshore wind energy generation is starting to mature, as the landowner of the seabed, The Crown Estate welcomes this competition and hopes that these new designs reduce capital and investment costs required to deliver offshore wind as an alternative, secure energy supply. This is another step towards the successful delivery of 40GW by 2020 that industry has put on the table.”The designs will receive up to £100,000 support for concept development, engineering analysis, commercial feasibility and technical assistance. Of the shortlisted designs, up to three final winners will have their designs built and installed in large scale demonstration projects in 2010-2012 with funding from a consortium led by the Carbon Trust.
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