Wind Energy offshore in Europe

Opening up a massive potential

The installation of wind farms offshore is being planned in many countries around the world. Offshore is to become a mainstay of future electricity supplies, but so far few countries have managed to get past the test phase.

190 Sun & Wind Energy 9/2009 Opening up a massive potential

The cable-laying ships “Installer” and “Team Oman” meet up in the German Bight to exchange a section of the cable for the “Alpha Ventus” . Photos (3): Transpower Wind Energy offshore in europe

ccording to the World Wind Energy Associa­ ognised the value retention of offshore wind farms. A tion (WWEA), there are a total of 32 offshore feed-in tariff based on the German model would make Awind farms in operation worldwide in eleven the market even more attractive for financiers, how­ countries. There are 615 wind turbines running at ever, says Westwood. these, with a total capacity of almost 1,500 MW (see Looking at technology, the trend towards larger table on page 194). Heading the rankings with eight turbines is continuing. “Currently the 3 MW turbine is wind farms each are the United Kingdom (UK) and considered standard, but the 5 MW is on its way to Denmark. Sweden and the Netherlands also have becoming so”, says Westwood. Even if there have not over 100 MW of offshore power installed. All other yet been any official statements by manufacturers, it countries are still at the testing or planning stages. is clear to him that the development departments are currently working on wind turbines with 7.5 or even The markets and technologies 10 MW of capacity. continue to be dynamic A “final size” cannot yet be predicted, says his colleague Andrew Garrad, who is one of the world’s So far, even the financial crisis has not been able to best-known wind power experts, but: “If you extend slow down the dynamics of this market. Of the off­ the historical development curve, then you reach a shore capacity now under construction, it is expected hub height of 205 m and a rated capacity of 15 MW.” that 733 MW will go into operation this year and Whether this will ever actually be achieved is a ques­ This is what 55 km of sea cable 853 MW next year. Project financing is becoming the tion of economic viability, and this cannot be an­ looks like when rolled together world’s most common means of financing and is win­ swered today, admits Garrad. – here on the cable drum on ning out over company-balanced financing, secured the Team Oman, being used through company credit-worthiness. According to The British government for the German farm “Alpha John Westwood from the British consultancy Douglas- steps up the pace Ventus”. Westwood Ltd, this is a sign that financiers have rec­ The British are clearly the world champions in an ar­ ea where they have always shown special talent: on the water. The British government is stepping up the pace and is now going ahead with round 3 of the com­ petitive tendering process (rounds 1 and 2 covered almost 9 GW), in order to connect up vast areas of sea outside the 12 sea-mile zone. The nine new selected projects are to add a further 25 GW to electricity sup­ plies by 2020. The Government wants to make £ 10.4 billion (€ 12.1 billion) available for the grid connection of these wind farms alone. These are glowing prospects. The British offshore sector is currently only worried about the drop in the British pound. This is hurting because there is almost no home wind power industry and the wind turbines have to be purchased in euro or dollar regions. John Westwood calculates as follows: “For the first off­ shore farm in British waters we managed £ 1.1 ­million per installed megawatt. Today we require £ 2.5 ­million and in the future will require £ 3.5 million per mega­ watt.” This last figure is the equivalent of € 4 million per megawatt. This dicey cost situation for the British has eased somewhat due to the falling worldwide price of steel. It is still foreseeable, however, that steel prices will rise again after the end of the world­ wide recession and that the costs could even go above the levels forecast by Westwood. The drop in the pound is the only dark cloud dampening the British offshore boom, though. The wind power industry can be happily assured of the full support of the British government, which is even supporting the use of wind turbines on the seas ide­ ologically: “It is socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines”, said Secretary of State for Energy Ed Miliband recently, who is also vehemently in favour of expanding nuclear power, however. Nature is also ­being favourable towards the British: most coastal ­areas have average wind speeds of at least 8 m/s,

192 Sun & Wind Energy 9/2009 and often considerably higher than 9 m/s. Im November 2007 a Goldwind turbine with The offshore plans of the British government are 1.5 MW capacity was erected in the Gulf of Bohai as seeing to it that the political frameworks are similar­ the first Chinese offshore wind turbine. At the end of ly good as the meteorological conditions. The analyst May 2009 a 3 MW offshore wind turbine followed as John Westwood declares: “Many projects in the UK a state demonstration project and as one of the key are able to show yields of 10 % thanks to the good projects of the Shanghai authority’s energy pro­ conditions.” gramme. The state builders want to put up 34 tur­ bines at the “East China Sea Wind Power Farm”. The Big plans in China turbines are of Chinese manufacture. Additionally, four projects with a total capacity of 1,300 MW are al­ Experts estimate that the technically available total so being planned. potential for in China lies at around 750 GW. According to the Chinese Institute of USA: Who will be first? Meteorological Sciences, it is thus three times the on­ shore potential, and both together exceed the hydro­ The USA has been the largest wind power market power reserves in the country. in the world since 2005. This is inspiring the imag­ The discussion on offshore use in China had al­ ination and opens up leeway for offshore plan­ ready begun about four years ago. An article in the ning, as examples from other countries have English language newspaper “China Daily” took up shown. the subject back then on wind power use on the high The offshore potential is huge. The USA doesn’t seas. The wind farms, which would ideally be erected just have a coastline of 20,000 km along the Atlantic around 50 km from the coast, were a key element of and Pacific, but also borders on the large lakes in the the Chinese renewable energy programme. The Chi­ north, which are really more like inland seas than nese government was thinking of the booming east lakes. The wind conditions in the northern regions of coast of its massive nation. “Offshore wind sites are the west and east coasts are superb, with an average close to the main electricity load centres in eastern of 8 m/s. Along the southeast and southwest coasts China, so offer great potential for future energy sup­ of the USA the average wind speeds are a little lower, ply”, said Shi Pengfei, Vice President of the Chinese however. In the Gulf of Mexico the shallow waters Wind Energy Association (CWEA), and continued: “I may be favourable for offshore use, but the ever- am confident that in 20 or 30 years a significant pro­ more-common hurricanes are a more negative aspect 0302_Windenergie_210x144_EN.qxdportion of the wind power in China 18.08.2009 will be offshore.” 11:16 here.Uhr Seite 1

DELTA ® protects surfaces.

Make the most of the unbeatable efficiency of our zinc lamella systems. (Before the competition gets wind of them.)

The innovative and efficient alternative in the field of high-performance corrosion protection for wind turbines: the DELTA-MKS® zinc lamella systems from Dörken. Well-established throughout the world, specified through the world, not to mention available throughout the world. If you would like to find out more about the composition, applications and cost effectiveness of our systems, we are ready and waiting – in person or via the Internet: www.doerken-mks.de/wind WIND ENERGY Wind Energy Offshore in Europe

shore wind turbines with a total capacity of 12 MW were installed. The delays have understandable causes. The bad technical conditions, especially in the , pre­ vented economic calculations from being made for quite a while. The 17 wind farms so far approved for the North Sea have to deal with water depths of up to 50 m and are planned to be up to 100 km from the coast. The four farms approved so far in the Baltic do not face such large challenges, though. The sea cables have a diameter It was only when the German government made of 18 cm and above, and have It has not so far been possible to reliably estimate the connection to shore an obligation for the two so far been used to link up 32 the technically available total capacity of the USA. large grid operators Vattenfall and E.on, and consid­ offshore farms to the onshore Studies speak of over 70 GW just for the New England erably increased the feed-in tariff, that German off­ grids. coast in the northeast of the USA, and Stanford Uni­ shore development gathered speed. The federal gov­ versity reached a figure of 330 GW for the Atlantic ernment is putting up € 50 million towards the instal­ coast and 16 GW for the coast of California. Such fig­ lation of the pilot project “Alpha Ventus”, which is to ures have even been topped occasionally; the US consist of twelve turbines of the 5 MW class. The in­ ­Energy Agency speaks of a potential of 1,000 GW. stallation of the first wind turbine at the test site There are several reasons to assume that electric­ 45 km north of the island of Borkum began in mid-­ ity from offshore wind power will have a big future in July. The sea cable for the grid connection onshore is the USA, for two points fit together well. Firstly: the ar­ also ready, as is the transformer station at the wind eas of sea suitable for offshore use are near the large farm itself. The operating consortium calculates that centres of energy use. The 28 coastal states of the USA it will be able to finish the installation of all twelve use 80 % of the electricity, and the transmission dis­ wind turbines by the end of the year. tances from the offshore wind farms would thus be The first commercially run German offshore wind relatively short. Secondly: electricity prices are high in farm may be “Bard Offshore 1”. It lies approx. 100 km the consumption centres near the coast, which in­ northwest of Borkum. The company Bard distinguish­ creases the competitiveness of offshore electricity. es itself through its determination to be independent. The are currently no offshore farms in the USA, al­ Both the 5 MW turbine and the assembly ship are of though there are many very concrete plans (see ­pages their own design. Bard plans to lay the first founda­ 198 to 202). They are concentrated on the east coast tions in a few weeks’ time. The company wishes to get of the United States, in the states Massachusetts, the first turbines up and running within 2009 and Rhode Island, Delaware and New Jersey, as well as plans to link up the whole wind farm of 80 turbines one project on Lake Erie. The yearbook of the WWEA (400 MW) onto the grid before the end of 2010. for 2009/2010 includes a total of eleven projects In the Baltic the German energy supplier EnBW with a total capacity of almost 9,000 MW. aims to start the installation of the “Baltic 1” wind farm (48 MW) in the spring of 2010. After that, further Germany is starting a pilot project activities are planned in the Baltic by Denmark and Sweden. Both countries began the installation of wind In Germany, which was until recently still the wind turbines offshore back in 1990. They led the offshore power world champion with currently approx. scene for several years and are now strengthening 25,000 MW of onshore installed capacity, offshore their efforts once more. In Denmark there are current­ use has years of delays behind it. While the neigh­ ly two projects being planned, totalling 230 MW. bouring countries all around the North Sea and Baltic Swedish developers and energy suppliers are working put up wind farms in their coastal waters, very little on a total of nine projects totalling 5,600 MW. happened in Germany for a long time. Just three near­ Jörn Iken

Offshore wind power: a comparison of countries

UK DK NL SE BE FI IE DE ES CN JP

Operational wind farms 8 8 2 5 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 Number of turbines 203 215 96 66 6 10 7 3 5 2 2 Installed capacity [MW] 598 414 228 134 30 30 25 12 10 5 1 Projects under construction (MW) 5 (1,247) 2 (230) 0 0 0 0 0 4 (598) 0 0 0

There are already 32 offshore wind farms supplying electricity worldwide. The table provides an overview of farms that have gone into operation between 1991 and 2009. Also included are the “nearshore” turbines, which have mainly been test objects. Source: WWEA

194 Sun & Wind Energy 9/2009 Italy stands for football, , ... Wind Energy offshore in Europe

„In talk with everyone“ Duncan Ayling has been running the offshore section of the British Duncan Ayling – here in an interview with S&WE author Jörn Iken. Photo: Detlef Koenemann Wind Energy Association (BWEA) since 2007. S&WE spoke with him about the future of offshore wind power in Great Britain.

S&WE: Mr Ayling, it looks as if Labour are go- S&WE: What do you mean by that? S&WE: Great Britain is offshore world cham- ing to lose the next election. Might there be a Ayling: In Great Britain the IPC holds the reins pion without having its own wind power in- change in policy as far as wind power is con- as far as offshore policies are concerned. It dustry. Are things going to develop here? cerned? thus has more leverage than the local author­ Ayling: We have naturally learnt from the past, Duncan Ayling: It is by no means certain that ities. Additionally, the government has a and especially also from Denmark and Germa­ Labour will lose the next election. But aside strong position. Some people think this is un­ ny. So we know what it depends on; an industry from that it is indeed possible that there may democratic. But regardless of the future role develops where there is financial support. We be small changes. The role of the Infrastruc­ of the IPC, the Conservatives also know that thus have a new opportunity with the offshore ture Planning Committee (IPC) may change, we can only achieve our climate protection sector. But do the projects need a home indus­ as the Conservatives are not completely hap­ aims with wind power. And for this you also try? I am not at all sure whether the transporta­ py with it. need planning tools. tion of turbines from the continent will make offshore wind power electricity notice­ably more expensive. After all, Great Britain has the ad­ vantage that it is surrounded by shallow wa­ ters. This balances things out quite a bit.

S&WE: Great Britain will soon be surround- ed by offshore farms. Are there problems to do with competing interests? Ayling: Obviously there is an overlap of user interests, be it by the military, shipping or fisheries. There is a steering group directly responsible to the government that deals with solving such issues. The British wind power industry is thus in talks with every­ one. That is the most important thing. The interview was conducted by Jörn Iken.

The jacket foundations for the Alpha Ventus pro- ject are currently manufactured by Burntisland Fabrication in Scotland. Photo: DOTI/ Matthias Ibeler

196 Sun & Wind Energy 9/2009 ... the Vatican and a lot of Special Edition Italy sun

Book now for your Special Edition advertising ticket to sucess on the Italian Italy 40,000 circulation worldwide PV market!

Advertising deadline: potentials and current market facts October 9th 2009 International contact: political background information Christian Krosse and eligibility criteria Phone: +49/521/595 581 e-mail: [email protected] company profi les