This week’s Wind Energy Update news brief includes the following companies and organisations: RWE npower renewables, National Grid; The European Investment Bank, WPD Group, Eksport Kredit Fonden, KfW, Industriens Pension, Marguerite, PKA, Siemens Project Ventures; Siemens Energy; The European Wind Energy Association, GL Garrad Hassan; The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

By Ritesh Gupta

Weekly Intelligence Brief: 4 - 11 February 2013 

Triton Knoll consultation reviews electrical system

RWE npower renewables has made a series of announcements pertaining to its Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm, including its decision to hold a consultation about the project with public bodies, local communities and other interested parties starting in February and running until early April. The project is a proposed offshore wind farm located off the east coast of England, approximately 20 miles off the coast of Lincolnshire and 28 miles from the coast of North Norfolk. 

The company, which has already submitted an application for the offshore package, including the offshore wind turbines which will be decided upon by the Secretary of State later this year, also announced an update on the electrical system which will carry the renewable energy from the wind farm. 

RWE is hoping that the consultation will enable it to select apt location for the Triton Knoll electrical infrastructure, which will consist of undersea cables travelling from the offshore wind farm to a location in the vicinity of Anderby Creek.

The company will then bury cables underground to an intermediate electrical compound on one of three short-listed sites located within the East Lindsey area. The underground cables will then travel to a substation on one of four short-listed sites located near the national grid connection point at Bicker Fen, to the west of Boston.

The consultation will give local residents the opportunity to have their say on the short listed sites for the substation and intermediate electrical compound. RWE npower renewables is seeking views on the three possible locations where an intermediate electrical compound could be located in the East Lindsey area, and the four options for the siting of an onshore electricity substation in the area to the south west of Boston. 

It has chosen to use Alternating Current technology to transmit the power from the wind farm to the National Grid which has a number of benefits over the other options considered.

The exact size of the project is not determined, but if granted consent to go ahead, Triton Knoll Offshore Wind Farm could generate up to 1,200 MW. If constructed in full, the investment made by RWE is likely to exceed £3.6bn, a large proportion of which will be invested in the U. K.

EIB to fund Butendiek wind farm

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is to lend €450m for the 288 MW Butendiek wind farm. The project, to be set up 53 km off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein and 32 km to the west of the island of Sylt, will cost a total of €1.4bn. 

Construction work is due to commence in the first half of 2014 and will last until the middle of 2015. The operator is WPD Group.

Apart from the EIB, the Danish government export credit agency Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF), KfW and nine commercial banks will also be involved in financing the wind farm. As the lead manager, KfW IPEX Bank is arranging the finance in conjunction with Bremer Landesbank and Unicredit. The loans will total around €940m. 

The remaining funds will come from a consortium of investors consisting of Industriens Pension, Marguerite, PKA, Siemens Project Ventures and WPD.

Siemens introduces its new turbine, modular platform 

Siemens Energy has launched its new offshore wind turbine - the SWT 4.0-130. It has a generating capacity of 4MW and a rotor diameter of 130m. The new design is a further advancement of the SWT 3.6 family. The nacelle and tower are advanced variants of the 3.6-MW wind turbine design. The new B63 rotor blade measures 63m in length. 

Since December last year, the prototype of the new turbne has been installed and commissioned at the Osterild Test Center in Denmark. Serial production is expected to commence in 2015.

The company shared that in the future, each of Siemens’s wind turbine types will be bundled under the umbrella of one of four product platforms. The objective of this platform strategy is to standardise and modularise the products. The name of each platform is dictated by a combination of the applied drive technology and the performance class of the wind turbines. Platforms based on geared technology are denoted by G (for geared drive), while product platforms featuring gearless technology are identified by the prefix D (for direct drive).

European wind sector faces 5% skilled worker shortfall

It is being highlighted that the European wind industry faces a harsh shortage of around 5,500 appropriately qualified staff per year. This shortfall could climb to 18,000 by 2030 - nearly 5% of the entire wind industry workforce - if numbers of suitable workers do not increase. 

This, according to the European Wind Energy Association, has been revealed in a report published by the EU’s Wind Energy Technology Platform (TPWind), based on research by renewable energy consultancy GL Garrad Hassan.

There is a need to focus on areas like O&M training and widen the skills of wind energy graduates. 

Recently, the EWEA shared that Europe installed and grid connected 293 offshore wind turbines in 2012. This figure represents 1,165 MW, an increase of 33% compared to 2011 installation of 874 MW. In all, 293 new offshore wind turbines, in 9 wind farms, representing investments of between €3.4bn and €4.6bn, were fully grid connected between 1 January and 31 December 2012. 

BOEM extends public comment period 

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in the U. S. has chosen to extend the comment period on its call for information and nominations for commercial leasing for wind power on the Outer Continental Shelf Offshore North Carolina. 

The call is gauging the offshore wind industry’s interest in acquiring commercial wind leases in three areas offshore North Carolina and to request comments regarding site conditions, resources, vessel traffic, visual impacts and other uses within the call areas. 

BOEM is also extending the public comment period on its Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an environmental assessment (EA), which will consider potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts associated with issuing commercial wind leases and approving site assessment and site characterisation activities on the lease areas. 

The comment period for the call and NOI will now end on March 7. The previous 45-day comment period ended late last month.