Wind Energy Planning

€2.4m needed for Offshore Wind Farm Ship Investments

Measures to make investment in offshore wind vessels more attractive are being urged by European Shipyard and Wind Energy Associations.

The Community of European Shipyards Association (CESA) and the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) want the European Commission and European Investment Bank to help stimulate the funding of new ships to build offshore wind farms.

Centrica CEO Doubts Offshore Wind Farm Delivery

The CEO of British Gas owned company Centrica has warned that the delivery of a 3rd round of UK offshore wind farms is “questionable”.

Centrica CEO Sam Laidlaw told Timesonline today that the company has doubts as to whether the proposed 32 Gigawatts of offshore wind farms around UK shores would ever go ahead. Despite benefiting from cross party support, the Round 3 offshore wind energy programme is set to be challenged by spiralling costs.

Laidlaw said,

New Wind Turbine Blade Factory for North East England

A new wind turbine blade testing factory is set to be constructed near Newcastle according to an announcement by Clipper Windpower this week. The news has been warmly welcolmed after the recent Vestas blade factory closure on the Isle of Wight.

The 4000 m2 factory will be part funded by an offshore wind technology grant of over £4m (over US $6m) from the Department of Energy and Climate Change. It is expected to be constructed by September of this year.

The North East has suffered from the recession acutely but the new wind turbine facility is expected to help the region become an important economic hub for offshore wind energy.

Offshore Wind Energy Vital for Europe’s Future

The European Wind Energy Association has claimed that offshore wind power is vital for Europe’s future in a new report published this month.

The report “The European Offshore Wind Industry – key trends and statistics” confirms that a total of eight new wind farms comprising 199 offshore wind turbines were connected to the grid in 2009. With a combined power generating capacity of 577 megawatts (MW) this represents a growth rate of 54% compared to the 373 MW installed during 2008.

During 2010, the EWEA anticipates the construction of 10 further European offshore wind farms, adding 1,000 MW and equivalent to market growth of 75% compared to 2009.

According to EWEA more than 100 GW of offshore wind farms are currently being planned by project developers and utilities.

Average water depths for offshore wind farms installed during 2009 was 12 metres compared with 21.8 metres for offshore wind farms currently under construction and up to 80 metres for the latest round of offshore areas announced by the UK last week.

Grid Approvals Needed Immediately for 3rd Round of Offshore Wind Farms

Grid upgrades need to be approved immediately if the wind energy industry is to avoid delays in the build-out of new offshore wind farms according to the British Wind Energy Association.

The announcement of the 3rd round of UK offshore wind farms made by the Crown Estate on Friday could lead to a quarter of the UK’s electricity coming from offshore wind energy. However the 32 Gigawatts of potential capacity will only be built if it can be connected to new UK grid infrastructure.

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband said on Friday “we know that there is still a huge amount of work to do but today marks a very important first step”.

Crown Estate CEO Roger Bright said that the round 3 programme has cross party support – and that this will help in terms of investor confidence. It will however be interesting to see if the Conservative position on offshore wind energy changes if government money is required to contribute towards the new grid infrastructure or if electricity bills need to go up substantially to pay for the works.

3rd Round of UK Offshore Wind Farms Announced

The Crown Estate has today announced the 3rd round of UK offshore wind farms. It comes as no surprise that the big winners are giant consortiums made up of globally operating utilities and companies with offshore experience. The winners will be taking on unprecedented challenges with sites up to 195km offshore and water depths of up to 80 metres.

The largest zones at Doggerbank (9000 Megawatts) and Norfolk (7200 MW) go to consortia giants Forewind and East Anglia Offshore Wind. Forewind is made up of RWE renewables, Scottish and Southern Energy, Statoil and Statkraft. East Anglia Offshore Wind is Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft.

Eddie O’Connor’s Mainstream Renewables and Siemans bagged the 4000 MW Hornsea zone, whilst SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd equally owned by SSE Renewables and Fluor, won the Firth of Forth Zone.

Eon and Dutch utility Eneco were left with the smaller south of England coast sites off Brighton and the Isle of Wight.

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown MP said: “Our policies in support of offshore wind energy have already put us ahead of every other country in the world. This new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity. The offshore wind industry is at the heart of the UK economy’s shift to low carbon and could be worth £75 billion and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020.”

Floating Wind Turbine Future

It appears that floating wind turbines are set to become a reality in the near future if the signs of a newly emerging supply chain are anything to go by.

The Hywind, a 2.3 megawatt (MW) floating wind turbine made by Siemens, combines technologies from both the wind farm industry and the oil and gas sectors, and was installed in June of this year. It is being tested off the coast of Norway for two years. Since the installation of the turbine new products are starting to emerge which would be dedicated to the technology.

The video below shows a specialist barge which could be used to transport and put into place floating wind turbines. This is but a small indicator of the potentially huge benefits of offshore wind energy when it comes to new business and green collar jobs.

UK Back on the Green Energy Investment Track

After the PR disaster of the Vestas factory closure on the Isle of Wight, the UK Prime Minister is looking to reel in another wind turbine manufacturer and step up investment to get the country back on the green manufacturing track.

The Guardian’s Terry Macalister reported yesterday that PM Gordon Brown wants Siemens to open a factory in the UK as soon as possible. The move would provide a renewable energy manufacturing base and green collar jobs. The goverment is desperate to secure economic benefits from its huge potential wind energy market.

According to the Guardian, the prime minister will meet CEO of Siemens, Peter Löscher to provide some certainty and comfort on the delivery of a large scale offshore wind energy market. This lack of confidence in wind energy market growth was what led to the Vestas decision to abandon the UK.

A Siemens offshore wind representative said that the company will be closely watching what comes out of the Crown Estate’s Round 3 offshore wind farm license announcements which are imminent.

Utilities with Financial Muscle win Offshore Wind Energy licenses

Although not officially announced by the Crown Estate, the next round of huge UK offshore wind energy sites have been informally allocated to wind energy developers behind the scenes.

The 10,000 Megawatt Doggerbank area over 50miles east of northern England is rumoured to have been ringfenced for the consortium giant made up of RWE npower, Scottish and Southern Energy, Statkraft and Statoil Hydro known under the umbrella “Forewind”.

Scottish Power and Vattenfall are believed to be favourites for 5000 Megawatts in the wider Wash area, off the Norfolk coast.

Last of the Round 1 Offshore Wind Farms Heads for 2009 Completion

It will have taken nearly 10 years to get the first round of UK offshore wind energy projects up and running by the time the last Round 1 offshore wind farm is completed at Rhyl Flats later this year.

Back in April 2001, following a pre-qualification process, 18 companies were selected by the Crown Estate to progress projects in the first round of offshore wind farm sites on the UK seabed. This represented an unprecedented step by the then Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in pushing forward offshore wind farms. Under the agreements, the companies were given a three-year period in which to secure the required consents for a full lease to be granted by the Crown Estate.

npower renewables built the first commercial scale offshore wind farm in UK waters in 2003 between Rhyl and Prestatyn off the north coast of Wales. This 30 turbine wind farm known as North Hoyle was built with help from capital grants and now generates enough green electricity for the annual average needs of 40,000 homes.

Over 6 years later npower has purchased the rights for the development of sister project “Rhyll Flats” from Celtic Offshore Wind Limited (COWL). The site is located to the west of North Hoyle 5 miles from shore.

Second Call for Offshore Wind Demo Projects

The UK Government announced its Second Call for offshore wind energy demonstration projects today. The Second Call has, according to the Government a value of £10 million (US $16.4m) ring fenced for the deployment of offshore wind.

The Offshore Wind Demonstration Call is being administered through Solutions for Business, a Government support vehicle for new products. The aim of the funding is to stimulate and encourage the development and demonstration of offshore wind technologies and components for larger multi-megawatt wind turbines.

The UK Government desperately wants the wind farms in UK waters within the 2020 timeframe to meet its climate change commitments. Bids must be received by 28 August 2009. Application forms, guidance notes and the call for proposals are on the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) website.

Huge Area of Sea Needed for Offshore Wind Turbines

In order to meet the renewable energy aspirations of the UK government, offshore wind power developers need to find 10,000 km2 of sea area.

A strategic environmental assessment carried out by The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) calculated that up to 10,000 km2 of sea area would be needed to accommodate 25 Gigawatts (GW) of installed offshore wind energy capacity. This area of sea could be difficult to find given the number of ecological constraints – birds and marine life – and the need for shallow waters for economic reasons.

World’s First Floating Wind Turbine

The world’s first ‘full scale’ floating wind turbine has been installed off the Norwegian coast by Statoil Hydro.

The 2.3 Megawatt turbine has 100 metres of ballast below the water to support the massive structure. It is expected to generate enough green electricity for the equivalent of 1600 UK homes.

The project costing US $16m is a test case with US $9m allocated for ‘testing’. This video explains the project and interviews a StatoilHydro representative.

£10 Million Offshore Wind Technology Fund up for Grabs

The Department of Energy and Climate Change opened its doors yesterday to offshore wind energy research and development companies with bids for a share of a £10 million (US $16m) offshore wind technology fund.

The fund is aimed at stimulating the development of next-generation offshore wind energy technologies to try and achieve large scale delivery around the UK before 2020.

The Government has high hopes for offshore wind, relying heavily on the technology to meet its climate change commitments.

World’s Biggest Wind Farm – ‘London Array’ Will Be Built

DONG Energy, E.ON and Masdar announced yesterday that they will invest 2.2 billion euros in the 300 turbine + London Array project 12 miles off the Kent and Essex coasts in the UK.

The announcement means that the first phase of the world’s largest offshore wind farm will go ahead. The onshore work for the 1000 megawatt project is due to start in early 2011.

Norfolk Green Party Fight For Offshore Wind Farm

Norfolk County Council green party members were not happy this week when Norfolk’s planning and highways committee registered an objection to the 620MW Race Bank wind farm off the North Norfolk coast, 27 km from Blakeney Point.

The company proposing the scheme – Centrica (who owns British Gas in the UK, Direct Energy in the US, SPE in Belgium and Oxxio in The Netherlands) was awarded an agreement for lease from the Crown Estate in 2004 for the development of an offshore wind energy project at Race Bank beyond territorial waters. Centrica submitted an application for the Race Bank project to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in January of this year.

Offshore Wind Energy Projects Storm Ahead in the UK

DONG Energy installed its first wind turbine at Gunfleet Sands, off the Essex coast this morning.

The wind turbine is the UK’s first in the second round or “Round 2″ of constructing offshore wind farms as laid out and licensed by The Crown Estate in 2003. The project will have a capacity of 172 MW using 48 turbines at 3.6 MW each, and is due for completion by 2010.

Neils Bergh-Hansen, Executive Vice President at DONG Energy said:

UK Government and Ofgem Announce Final Offshore Grid Consultation

UK energy regulator Ofgem expects offshore wind energy to make a significant contribution to UK renewable energy targets with 8 Gigawatts (GW) already planned and potential for up to a further 25 GW.

Plans to build these huge offshore wind energy projects moved forward a small step earlier this week when The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Ofgem announced the final consultation stage for the new regulatory framework for the grid connection regime.

Offshore Wind in Need of Finance Boost

Over the last year we have seen some companies pull out of UK offshore wind energy, notably Shell, whilst others buy in. More recently we have seen even the big players hesitate with Centrica delaying construction of its 250MW east coast Lincs wind farm by at least a year. The company is blaming the supply chain after reviewing the project’s economics.

Centrica had reached the stage of talking to wind turbine manufacturers and contractors but has now put the brakes on.

Up to 7000 Wind Turbines Mooted for the UK Coastline

A new government report says there is potential for between 5000 and 7000 offshore wind turbines around the UK Coastline. The report was commissioned by the department of Energy and Climate Change and recommends that offshore wind energy developments should minimise impacts on the tourism and fishing industries by locating new turbines at least 22km from the coast.