Article: Offshore Wind Energy

By Justin Hardie, MEI, London.

While Australia is blessed with a vast undeveloped land, space is at a premium in most European countries. Windfarms have proven successful at delivering cost effective energy, but finding suitable sites and battling NIMBY’s is an ongoing industry problem.

Many European countries have turned to the North Sea as a location to site windfarms, with less environmental and social impact. Installing a windfarm at sea involves using oil and gas industry experience to install foundations at sea (similar to oil & gas platforms), with a wind turbine similar to those used on land, mounted on the foundation.

Offshore wind generation has advantages in terms of higher and more consistent wind speeds. Working at sea also allows much larger turbines to be installed, due to fewer logistical restrictions and reduced environmental constraints (i.e. noise restrictions). The largest turbine currently being developed is a 10MW offshore dedicated turbine by Clipper Windpower, which will use a 150m rotor and stand 175m tall above the sea (the average onshore turbine is 1.5MW). The larger power output justifies greater installation and maintenance costs.

The UK has identified significant wind resources along its coastline and has shallow waters (less than 60m depth) making it one of the best placed countries for realising offshore wind-powered electrical generation. However, the first offshore wind turbine was installed in Denmark in 1991.

The UK made its first foray into offshore wind development in 2000, with leases announced for 18 sites in 13 locations in 2001 (known as Round 1). In December 2003, 15 “Round 2” sites were awarded to a total of 10 companies. These sites were all located within the three areas, the Greater Wash, the greater Thames estuary and the North West.

The net result to date of Rounds 1 and 2 is the installed wind generation capacity of 404MW (BWEA, 2008). A further (up-to) 7,949MW is proposed or currently being built under Round 1 or 2 leases.

In March 2007 the European Union (EU) member states agreed an overall EU-wide renewable energy target called “20:20:20”. The target is three-fold: 20% of energy generation from renewable sources; a 20% reduction of emissions compared to 1990 levels; and a 20% improvement in energy efficiency; all by 2020. The result of this is that the UK has been charged with implementing 15% of its primary energy usage from renewable sources by 2020. The total energy usage includes heating, transport and electricity generation, but it is likely that electricity generation will have to provide the lion’s share.

Such is the importance of offshore wind energy, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is expecting offshore wind to deliver 19% of the UK’s target to 2020 – 3% of the UK’s overall energy usage, and a capacity of 14,000MW.

Currently the offshore wind industry is focussed on a “Round 3”. A number of offshore wind development zones have been identified to construct 25,000MW of offshore wind capacity by 2020. To put this in perspective, the Latrobe Valley in Victoria (generating 90% of Victoria’s electricity demand) has a generation capacity of approximately 6,900MW. Round 3 is likely to require investment of around £75 billion by developers.

In order to meet European energy targets, the offshore wind industry is likely to expand at a pace not seen since the North Sea oil & gas boom of the 70’s. The good news for renewable energy in Europe is that renewables continue to be taken seriously, attract investment and installed at scale. Europe remains lightyears ahead of Australia in terms of government policy and will remain the centre of the carbon and renewable energy world for the next decade. I would encourage anyone seeking business or a career in carbon, climate change or renewable energy, to consider a move to Europe.

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