Bigger, Deeper, Stronger: Giant Wind Mills Hoisted in Deep Ocean
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May 1, 2017....
...“Rhode Island’s Block Island silenced their diesel generating plant in the predawn morning hours...the Island went dark momentarily in a well-planned sequence of high-voltage switching intended to shut down the generators...
The Company employees systematically turned the lights back, this time powered by energy provided by the Nation’s first Offshore Wind project and the mainland grid.
The silence is symbolic..."
Windpower Engineering reported on the kick start of the Rhode Island First Offshore Wind Project in the US. The project is the tip of the iceberg of a Global tendency of bigger, deeper and stronger Offshore Wind Energy Giant projects.
The sector which is leading the way in renewable energy generation -Offshore Wind is growing at massive rates. Drawbacks, environmental concerns, benefits and real challenges of operating giant wind farms in deeper ocean waters are now at the frontline of the discussion.
Rhode Island`s Block Island project was the conclusion of a process which began over one decade ago but Offshore Wind projects in other areas like Asia are moving much faster.
Infrastructure Ne.ws reported that Africa is heading for a big year in the renewable energy space, with Kenya, South Africa and Morocco pegged as the countries that will expand on its wind power the greatest, making Ocean wind power an Intercontinental trend
The latest reported of the Global Wind Energy Council -GWEC “Global Wind Report: Annual Market Update” revealed that a new peak of global generation of energy has been reached.
“Over 54 GigaWatts of clean renewable wind power was installed across the global market in 2016, which now comprises more than 90 countries,” GWEC stated.
“Nine of these countries have more than 10,000 Megawatts of wind power installed, and 29 countries have now passed the 1,000 MW mark,” the organization kicked it.
Generating 1 thousand Megawatts may not sound as much but rough estimations assure that just 1 megawatt can power approximately 1000 homes. Other studies show that 45 Megawatts can power a small city of 80 thousand people.
An industrialized city of 1 million would require 10 thousand Megawatts, roughly. So yeah the news is a big, big deal.
To understand the international importance of energy generation one has to understand the deep connections of electric global and domestic energy consumption, environment, economy, society and our installed Global Energy Crisis.
“Across the Globe Wind power continues to grow. Led by Denmark pushing 40%, followed by Uruguay, Portugal and Ireland with well over 20%, Spain and Cyprus around 20%, Germany at 16%; and the big markets of China, the United States and Canada get 4%, 5.5%, and 6% of their power from wind, respectively,” Global Wind Energy Council ended.
Experts signal to Asia as the epicenter for the next Offshore Wind Revolution. “China will continue to lead all markets, but India set a new record for installations this past year and has a real shot to meet the government’s very ambitious targets for the sector,” the Global Wind Power organisation said.
Besides China and Asia other regions of the World were highlighted for already having innovative projects in standby for Green Light. Europe -a pioneer in Offshore Wind Energy is still much in the game of innovation and construction of new projects. The new Era of Offshore Wind Power is an Era full of new challenges, deeper waters, open ocean conditions and engineering miracles required for the construction of real monster turbines capable of incredible generation capacity as well as capable of withstanding the roughest conditions that oceans can throw at any structure.
The wide range of new projects are both surprising and innovative.
In the North Sea -one of the toughest ocean areas to work in Offshore Wind experts are drawing the blueprints for an artificial Island. Dutch grid operator TenneT TSO B.V., its German subsidiary TenneT TSO GmbH and the Danish company Energinet.dk are behind the game plan.
In China the State Power Investment Corporation SPIC wants to build the largest Offshore Wind Farm in the World. It is already in development stages and set for operation in 2018.
In New York City the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority NYSERDA is working to file in June a report that will assess the offshore wind offtake options for the state. The report is part of the New York’s Offshore Wind Master Plan.
“The existence of a power contract for [Offshore Wind] projects is paramount to their development, and New York, through its Clean Energy Standard, will be identifying the proper offtake options for New York,” Doreen Harris, director, large-scale renewables for NYSERDA, said.
Security and structure stability issues are on the table. Deep ocean conditions includes extreme wind zones, hurricane corridor areas, constant storms and other weather inflictions such as tropical storms and even cyclones, tsunamis or tectonic activity.
But Hans Cleijne -Head of the Renewables Advisory team of DNV GL Energy in the Benelux told Energy Post Europe that not even a hurricane could knock out the lights out.
“Turbines are designed to withstand hurricanes with wind speeds of over 70 m/s -140 knots,” Cleijne assured.
A single hurricane would not affect the continual power supply but continual storms could cause affections. Turbines for security reason shut down when winds pick up speed above 50 knots and believe it or not this is a recurrent issue in regions like the North West of Europe or the China Ocean.
Innovations in generation and storage of energy are being pushed to avoid disruption of the energy supply in these type of conditions. Structure integrity under natural disasters and extreme weather are priority.
“Wind power continues to grow in double digits, but we can’t expect the industry to set a new record every single year”, Steve Sawyer, GWEC secretary general said as the Offshore Wind Energy Fever sweeps across Asia.
Still Environmentalists assure that this trend is “not exactly a breeze”. National Wind Watch explained and detailed “legal disputes from commercial fishing advocates and construction plans altered by whale migrations,” as some cases which have already risen.
Wind Action on the other hand enlists many other real cases environmental issues which have affected Offshore Wind projects. From entire Countys voting against wind projects, Fishing industry strongly opposing the mega wind farms, environmentalist concerned for ecological impact of ocean life such as Birds and Whales, the list goes on and on.
As Offshore Wind Energy goes deeper into the most dangerous parts of the Ocean experts look into how to solve logistics, construction, distribution, structures, weather, risks, emergencies, and environmental impacts all while dropping costs.
During the opening session of the Offshore Wind Journal conference in London Mr Chris Anderson, chief executive at 4C Offshore explained that Worldwide there are 26 projects in the pre-construction phase with total capacity of 8.64 GW. Offshore wind generation is expected to increase by 20 Gigawatts by 2020.
“Turbines are getting bigger and more powerful and there will be new 10 MW turbines by the early 2020s. Most current new projects are in waters of about 35 meters to 40 meters deep, but some are starting to go further offshore and into deeper water which will require upgraded support vessels,” Mr Anderson said.
Wind Power Engineering agreed that projects are getting bigger. They say that “Monster Deep Water Offshore Floating Wind Turbines are the new horizon for renewable energy”.
Clean continual energy sounds as sweet as anything can sound but many believe that the “wind will not blow so smoothly” for the sector.
Energy Post Europe reported on the growing risks of offshore wind. “Can we rely on the sea for our power supply?” they asked and answered. “How safe is it for countries to rely on offshore wind to such a large extent for their power needs?” they continued.
“On the one hand, we are pushing the boundaries of what is technically possible: we are moving further away from shore, in deeper waters with more severe marine and wind conditions,” Thomas Boehme, Senior Principal Engineer with DNV GL in France said.
“The first offshore wind farms were built in the easiest locations,” Boehme explained, “close to shore in shallow waters”.
“The North Sea is actually a relatively shallow sea, ideal for offshore activities. But the industry now has to move to more challenging locations. Other seas -such as France’s part of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, or the seas around the US or Japan and China, tend to be much deeper. In water depths of 100 metres or more, it makes more sense, in fact, to build floating wind turbines,” Boehme added.
“They (Floating Giant Windmills) are the next exciting new development in offshore wind technology,” the expert told the press.
