Offshore Wind

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In UK waters, the marine environment is harsh. The logistics of installing, running and maintaining machines far from shore to provide an affordable source of electricity creates significant engineering challenges.

Larger, more reliable turbines with a larger swept area (blade size) operating in windier areas with reduced costs are paramount to cost reduction. We have commissioned projects to improve turbine reliability, accelerating the deployment of longer blades to demonstrate the feasibility of floating offshore wind turbines in windier areas.

The technologies needed to exploit these resources competively require significant development and cost reduction before they can compete with fossil fuel technologies and the lowest cost forms of carbon generation.

Our focus is on driving down the costs of offshore wind through the development of appropriate innovative engineering solutions.

Why Offshore Wind?

The UK has Europe’s biggest offshore wind resource. This could make a major contribution to meeting the UK’s electricity demand. It is estimated that the UK has over a third of the total European potential offshore wind resource.

Offshore wind provides the best hedging option in case any of the other technologies, including nuclear, Carbon Capture and Storage and bioenergy, which currently look to be more valuable, fail to deliver on their potential or are significantly delayed. It is predicted offshore wind will deliver energy costs that are lower than all other forms of renewable energy, other than onshore wind.

Our analysis shows the costs of offshore wind can be reduced significantly through the development of engineering solutions. That is why we are investing heavily in the demonstration of technologies such as floating offshore wind platforms, very long blades, condition monitoring systems and test rigs that could significantly lower the lifecycle costs of offshore wind, making it more financially attractive, leading to far higher levels of deployment.

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Nova

●● A feasibility study on the technical and commercial viability of vertical axis turbines

●● Investigated 5MW and 10MW designs based on aerogenerator rotor concepts

●● The project was delivered by a consortium featuring industry and academia.

The NOVA project delivered a feasibility study which evaluated the technical and commercial viability of a 5MW and 10MW vertical axis turbine, based upon the aerogenerator rotor concept. It also evaluated specific design options for the rotor, drivetrain and foundations.

Project Managed by OTM Consulting Ltd, the consortium also included Wind Power Ltd, the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and the Universities of Cranfield, Sheffield and Strathclyde.

Started in January 2009 with an ETI investment of £2.8m and completed in summer 2010 the project provided the ETI with valuable information that has helped shape the next stage of our Offshore Wind programme.

The project showed that the Nova concept was commercially and technically feasible. Its size was limited to a maximum of 10MW by current bearing technology. Our further analysis suggests that horizontal access wind turbines will evolve faster than vertical access wind turbines and provide lower costs of energy in the short to medium term.

What have we done to date?

Nova was one of three initial projects along with Helm Wind and Deep Water looking at new turbine design concepts. The focus of all three projects was on enabling technologies that could have a significant impact on offshore wind cost of energy from 2020 onwards.

Deep Water

●● Project to examine the economical and technical feasibility of Tension Leg Platform (TLP) design

●● Investigated offshore 5MW wind turbines with hybrid concrete/steel floater and concrete counter weight

●● Showed that TLP based solutions could help reduce the costs of offshore wind in the UK

This project was led by Blue H Technologies. The consortium also included BAE Systems, Romax, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Agricultural Science, EDF, PAFA Consulting Engineers and Sea & Land Power and Energy Ltd. It delivered an economic and technical feasibility study for a novel floating TLP 5MW offshore wind turbine having a hybrid concrete/steel floater and a concrete counter weight.

The project started in January 2009 with an ETI investment of £3.3m and completed in the summer of 2010. The project provided us with valuable data on TLP floating foundation design and cost. It has helped shape the next stage of our Offshore Wind programme which currently involves using a TLP design for our floating platform project.

Our analysis concludes that the cost of energy from the sites to the South West, North West and North East of the UK could provide highly competitive levelised energy costs.

£3.3mThe Deep Water project started in January 2009 with an ETI investment of £3.3m and completed in the summer of 2010

Helm Wind

●● Investigation into concepts and technologies required to deliver significant cost reductions

●● Swept areas (blade size) needed to be larger than was usual at the time of the project

●● The optimum size of turbine is larger than the current state of the art design

The Helm Wind project carried out an unconstrained investigation into the concepts and technologies required to deliver significant cost of energy reductions for offshore wind. This included rotor diameter, geometry and speed, number of blades, upwind and downwind orientations, drivetrain options and support structures.

Led by E.ON, the consortium also included BP, Rolls-Royce and the University of Strathclyde.

The project started in January 2009 with an ETI investment of £2.5m. The project finished in the autumn of 2010. It identified that sufficient improvements could be made through technology innovation to deliver energy costs that were comparable with 2010 onshore wind costs one of ETI’s objectives for the offshore wind programme.

This would require innovation in rotor aerodynamics and diameter, drivetrain technologies and electrical systems. The consortium also indentified that the optimum turbine size for offshore wind; is significantly larger than the current state of the art design.

What have we done to date? Continued

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Condition Monitoring

●● The development of intelligent monitoring for wind turbines

●● Sought to improve reliability and the monitoring of turbines

●● Sought to increase the availability of turbines by reducing their downtime by up to 20%

The Condition Monitoring project was led by Moog Insensys and included Romax, SeeByte, the University of Strathclyde, E.ON and EDF. It looked towards developing an intelligent integrated, predictive, condition monitoring package for wind turbines, which improves reliability, increasing availability by reducing downtime by up to 20% and leading to potential savings of £16,000 per turbine.

Launched in September 2009 with £5.4m of ETI funding the system was being tested on turbines belonging to EDF in France and E.ON in North Yorkshire. The project completed in summer 2013.

£5.4mCondition Monitoring was launched in September 2009 with £5.4m of ETI funding

Offshore Wind Test Rig

●● Indoor turbine test rig based at National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in Northumberland

●● Allows the whole offshore wind drivetrain to be tested onshore before deployment offshore

●● Samsung Heavy Industries confirmed as the first commercial customer for the test rig

Two consortia, GE Energy Power Conversion / MTS and Horiba, were commissioned to deliver competing technical designs for an indoor test rig capable of testing a complete wind turbine drive train and nacelle in 2010.

In 2011 GE Energy Power Conversion and MTS were subsequently commissioned to design, develop and commission the test rig, which is sited at Narec in Blyth, Northumberland. We have invested over £25m in the project, in partnership with the Technology Strategy Board who funded the Narec building and supportive infrastructure. Samsung Heavy Industries have signed as the first commercial customer and will test their 7MW turbine on the rig.

The test rig has been designed to allow the whole turbine nacelle to be tested, in a purpose-built, onshore test facility before being exposed to the challenging offshore conditions. This will help reduce the technical and commercial risks of mass production and deployment.

What have we done to date?

Energy Technologies Institute www.eti.co.uk08 09

Continued

Very Long Blades Project

●● Seeking to develop a technology platform to build blades in excess of 100 metres

●● Use of carbon fibre in manufacture provides costs savings

●● Manufactured through smaller component pieces rather than full-length mouldings

Isle of Wight SME Blade Dynamics have been commissioned to develop a technology platform to build blades in excess of 100m, that would be used on the next generation of large offshore wind turbines with a capacity of 6MW. These are expected to be the world’s longest wind turbine blades ever built.

The blades will be constructed using new design techniques. They will incorporate carbon fibre along with other composite materials. This will see blades weighing up to 40% less, allowing significant weight and cost savings to be achieved in turbine design. This will help reduce the cost of energy.

The manufacturing process will also see the blades constructed through the assembly of smaller, more accurate and easily manufactured component pieces as opposed to the traditional large and expensive full-length mouldings.

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Floating Platform System Demonstrator

●● A FEED study into the design of an offshore wind floating platform system demonstrator

●● Tension Leg Platform design in partnership with Alstom’s 150-6MW Haliade turbine

●● Potential demonstrator deployment at ETI’s preferred test-site, Wave Hub in Cornwall

Floating turbine technology is of strategic importance to any future UK offshore wind strategy. The Floating System Demonstrator project aims to develop, install and commission a full scale floating wind turbine system demonstrator by 2016, which is aimed at 60m to 100m water depth.

The project draws upon earlier ETI studies. These showed that floating foundations could be very attractive, by allowing the UK to access higher wind sites that are reasonably close to shore.

Our analysis suggests that floating offshore wind has the medium to long term potential to deliver attractive energy costs.

The Glosten Associates, a US-based navel architecture and marine engineering firm are designing a tension leg platform (TLP) floating system demonstrator through a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) Study.

Their PelaStar TLP prototype will be developed in partnership with Alstom using their Haliade 150-6MW offshore wind turbine.

After the FEED study concludes a decision will be taken on whether or not to proceed to a full demonstration at a preferred site of Wave Hub in Cornwall.

What have we done to date? Continued

Value of Offshore Wind

Succesful technology demonstration will drive a benefit for the UK government to help inform future policy development as well as building an attractive investment case for further inward investment to the UK if it can be positioned as an important market for global players. The Crown Estate (owners of the national seabed) have the potential to benefit through a demonstration of prudent use of the UK’s natural resources and the technical development we are undertaking has the benefit of helping the industry to derisk for further global deployment.

Our Chief Exectuive, David Clarke participated in the recent Offshore Wind Cost Reduction Taskforce which reaffirmed the ability of the UK to meet a target cost of £100/MWh by 2020. This current delivery focus on floating turbines and bigger blades is committment to making this target a reality rather than an aspiration.

£100 MWhThe recent Offshore Wind Cost Reduction Taskforce reaffirmed the ability of the UK to meet a target cost of £100/MWh by 2020

Images provided courtesy of GE Energy Power Conversion and MTS System Corporation, USA

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●● Gaining access to higher wind sites, reasonably close to shore, will help to significantly reduce offshore wind energy costs. In the UK these areas are off the South West and North East of England and off the North West and North East coasts of Scotland. Accessing these areas will require the development of cost effective foundations for water depths of 20 to 100m.

●● Important technology innovation areas for reducing offshore wind energy costs are; accessing higher wind speeds, bigger more reliable turbines with larger swept area and reduced installation costs.

●● Most cost effective approach for producing electricity from offshore wind is likely to be a system-level solution comprising very long bladed (circa 90m, 10MW) downwind, gear-less, horizontal axis turbines, together with the use of floating foundations/platforms to provide access to deep water locations and hence the areas of high wind resource offshore

●● Although technically feasible, vertical axis turbines are not currently viewed as the preferred approach given that the cost of energy reduction is only likely to be delivered through scale-up. A number of major technical challenges would need to be addressed to make this a reality.

●● In order to harness energy in deepwater locations, tension leg platforms are a feasible foundation/platform design.

●● Offshore Wind turbines operating expenditiure accounts for 1/3 of the total cost of energy

●● Operating and Capital costs will be reduced by building fewer, larger units rather than many smaller ones

ETI Findings

£16-18bnGlobal market turnover by 2050 could grow to £16bn-18bn

£100m

LGICG members together expect to invest in excess of £100m of funding into Offshore Wind over the next 3-4 years

£7-35bnInnovation in Offshore Wind technology could help create UK based business opportunities that could contribute £7-35bn

£18-89bn

Innovation in Offshore Wind technology could create an estimated saving to the energy system of £18-89bn to 2050

£45bnInnovation opportunities can lead to a saving of £45bn in deployment costs over 2010-2050

25%Innovation opportunities over the next 10 years can bring down the deployment costs of Offshore Wind by up to 25%

Key facts and figuresThese figures are taken from the Low Carbon Innovation Coordination Group Technology Innovation Needs Assessment on Offshore Wind

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About ETI

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The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is a public-private partnership between global energy and engineering companies – BP, Caterpillar, EDF, E.ON, Shell & Rolls-Royce – and the UK Government.

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