Report: US offshore wind outperforms fossil fuels

A new report released by ocean conservation group Oceana has indicated that offshore wind can generate nearly 30% more electricity than offshore oil and gas resources combined on the Atlantic coast. In addition, wind development would cost about $36 billion less than offshore oil and gas production combined, while creating about three times as many jobs per dollar invested than fossil fuel production.

This report specifically looks at this question - Do we continue to expand offshore drilling, in spite of its now-undeniable risks, or are there better options?

Some of the findings, referring to the offshore wind potential, are as follows:

• A small fraction of U.S. renewable energy resources is enough to power the country several times over. This could be done in a cost-effective way that minimises carbon dioxide emissions which drive climate change and threaten our oceans.
• A modest investment in offshore wind could supply almost half the current electricity generation on the East Coast. 
• Delaware, Massachusetts and North Carolina could generate enough electricity from offshore wind to equal current electricity generation, entirely eliminating the need for fossil fuel based electric generation.
• New Jersey, Virginia and South Carolina could supply 92%, 83% and 64% of their current electricity generation with offshore wind, respectively. In all these states, wind could provide more energy than the states currently get from fossil fuels. 
• Offshore wind power offers more environmental benefits and fewer impacts than traditional fuels such as nuclear power, natural gas, coal and oil.

According to the report, developing 127 GW offshore wind energy capacity over 20 years would provide energy at a cost of about $36 billion less than the production of economically recoverable new offshore oil and natural gas. Also, offshore wind development off the Atlantic coast could create between 133,000 and 212,000 jobs annually in the US – more than three times as many jobs than new offshore oil and natural gas development is expected to create.

Offshore Wind Route Map unveiled in Scotland

Scotland’ s First Minister Alex Salmond has unveiled an industry-led Offshore Wind Route Map, setting out the key actions required in the coming years to fully realise the huge potential around the coast of Scotland.

In Scotland, up to 60,000 new green jobs could be created across the low carbon sector by the end of this decade - some 28,000 of them directly servicing domestic and worldwide offshore wind markets.

The Offshore Wind Industry Group's (OWIG) Route Map sets out the sector's ambitions in Scotland and identifies clearly what actions are needed now - from reform of the UK's outdated transmission charging regime to strengthening grid connectivity, said Mr. Salmond.

This Offshore Wind Route Map is the culmination of the work undertaken by OWIG, which was established in early 2009, setting out the opportunities, challenges and the priority recommendations for action for the sector to realise Scotland's full potential in offshore wind.

This Route Map assesses the current position of the offshore wind sector in Scotland and highlights opportunities for further development of the sector in the form of scenarios for growth.

The Route Map identifies the following key areas that require immediate action given the scale of the challenges to be addressed:

Investment in infrastructure: Key infrastructure requirements for the sector include: sites for manufacturing, installation and operations and maintenance supply chain with access to appropriate load out quayside at ports, vessels, office facilities and housing for personnel.

Appropriate supply chain: There will be great demand from developers for services, infrastructure and skills within the same timeframe. There is a risk that Scotland's indigenous supply chain may not be adequately prepared in time to meet and take advantage of the opportunities.

Ongoing innovation of technologies and practices: There is a real need to drive down the costs of offshore wind development, developers estimate by approximately 30%, reducing the risk to developers and guaranteeing the delivery of the proposed developments across the UK by 2020.

The ongoing innovation and development of new and existing technologies and operations will be a factor in driving down current costs, stimulating greater confidence in the technologies and attracting private investment.

Regulation of and access to the electricity grid: There is a concern that the UK's existing grid infrastructure is unable to support the considerable amount of new capacity coming from offshore renewable sources, especially offshore wind.

While the Electricity Networks Strategy Group ( ENSG) report identifies necessary infrastructure works to be undertaken, there is a risk that these upgrades will not be ready alongside developers' timelines. A lack of grid infrastructure and uncertainty around the proposed Offshore Transmission (OFTO) regime could also delay developments.

Necessary and available skills: Companies have reported difficulties in recruiting skilled personnel in, for instance, the fields of engineering (electrical, mechanical), design, project management and the marine environment.   

Finance: Innovative funding solutions must be sought to attract the significant levels of private sector investment needed if the offshore wind sector is to deliver as planned. This challenge is heightened given the current economic climate.

Securing support of local communities and existing users of the sea: It is important that the offshore wind sector engages directly and frequently with local communities, local authorities, interested parties and existing users of the sea to secure their support for the developments being taken forward.

SERL’s sale process “progressing well”

Aberdeen, Scotland-based SeaEnergy says it has been encouraged by the interest that has been expressed in its subsidiary SeaEnergy Renewables Limited’s (SERL) sale process.

In its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2010, the group stated that the process for realising value from its 80% interest in SERL is progressing well. The process, being coordinated by Ernst & Young, is expected to be concluded by the end of 2010.

“Developments over the next few months are critical to SeaEnergy. Much will be determined by the outcome of the SERL sale process. The international nature of the interest that has been shown in the sale process has required a longer time-table than we had initially anticipated, however we now believe it reasonable to assume that the process will be complete by year end,” said SeaEnergy executive chairman Steve Remp.

SERL holds a 25% stake in three separate UK offshore wind farm projects.

The group believes the supply chain and service industry for offshore wind farms will be a rapidly growing and profitable sector.

SeaEnergy says it requires additional sources of funding in order to progress the development of the offshore wind interests which it holds. Having recently tested the capital markets, its directors believe that it will be difficult to raise additional funding from the capital markets and they believe that a disposal of SERL is the best way of maximising shareholder value by allowing an entity, other than SeaEnergy, to develop these offshore wind development assets.

As far as operational highlights are concerned, the company mentioned that offshore activity on SeaEnergy’s Round 3 Zone 1 site at Moray Firth has commenced, with geophysical, met-ocean and bird surveys all underway. A consent application along with an Environmental Impact Assessment is due for submission in 2012.

Separately, arrangements with The Crown Estate to advance the Inch Cape project are now close to being concluded and have allowed offshore work to commence. Work on the Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm within Scottish Territorial Waters has also progressed well during the period, with geophysical survey work completed and geotechnical work on the site set to commence shortly.

As far as the group’s financial performance is concerned, it recorded a loss from continuing operations after tax of £4.2 million for the first six months of 2010 compared to a loss of £2.5 million for the first six months of 2009.

Carbon Trust focuses on improving turbine access

The Carbon Trust has launched a global competition in an attempt to improve the economics of offshore wind.

Through this competition, Britain’s Carbon Trust hopes to find answers to the problem of transferring engineers and equipment safely from boats to wind turbines as far as 300km offshore in 3-metre wave heights.

The competition is part of the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA), a major industry collaboration with eight energy companies – Dong Energy, E.ON, Mainstream Renewable Power, RWE Innogy, ScottishPower Renewables, SSE Renewables, Statkraft and Statoil – which aims to drive down the costs of energy from offshore wind by 10%.

Acknowledging the need for such solutions in the wake of wind farms being located as far as 300km offshore where they will operate in harsh conditions, Charles Hendry, Minister of State for Energy said: “As developers seek to get wind turbines into deeper waters, where the wind blows more wildly and the waves are stronger, it is vital that access and safety are maximised and costs minimised.”

Currently, wind farms are typically less than 20km from shore in relatively benign sea conditions, claims the Carbon Trust.

The competition aims to generate at least a 4% increase in turbine availability through the development of new technologies for the most challenging sea conditions. This in turn could increase the power generated, which would mean saving £3bn of lost revenue, according to the Carbon Trust.

This latest OWA global competition aims to identify and develop the necessary technologies for access of far-offshore wind turbines, focusing on:

• Transfer systems – To transfer personnel and equipment from vessel to turbine, potentially with motion-compensation
• Vessels – Vessels for transporting personnel and equipment from permanent bases or mother-vessels to turbines, incorporating a transfer system
• Launch and recovery systems – Systems fitted to the permanent bases or mother-vessels for launching and recovering daughter-vessels from the sea.

The successful applicants to the competition will benefit from funding of up to £100,000 per concept to support the design and development of the successful concepts; the opportunity to work with eight leading offshore wind developers with licences to develop 30GW of offshore wind capacity in UK waters (representing 60% of today’s licensed UK capacity) and potentially several million pounds of funding to take the concepts to full-scale demonstration.

The global market opportunity for these access solutions is estimated to be worth over £2bn by 2020 and according to Carbon Trust research, the UK market alone could account for up to 50% of that.

Viking Energy Shetland wind farm plan changed

Viking Energy Partnership has altered its plans for a 540MW wind farm on Scotland’s Shetland mainland, removing 23 turbines to reduce the impact on residents, birds and archaeology.

The developers have submitted additional information, known as an “addendum”, to the Energy Consents Unit for consideration by the Scottish Government. The original application for a 150-turbine wind farm in the central mainland of Shetland was submitted in May 2009.

Viking Energy is a 50:50 partnership between Viking Energy Ltd and SSE Viking Ltd. Viking Energy Ltd is the company established to represent the Shetland community in large-scale wind development and is 90% owned by the Shetland Charitable Trust. The remaining 10% is held by the islanders who developed Burradale Wind Farm.

The turbine break-up is as follows:

• Delting (the north-west area) had 33 turbines. Nine have been removed, leaving 24.
• Collafirth (the north-east area) had eight turbines. All eight have been removed.
• Kergord (the south-west area) had 47 turbines. One has been removed.
• Nesting (the south-east area) had 62 turbines. Five have been removed.

Some of the other changes include a reduction in the area covered by the wind farm of around 80 hectares, two fewer access junctions connecting to public roads, 14km less of access tracks, and changes to the habitat management plan in order to improve the natural environment, or help to reduce ongoing damage.

The total income for Shetland from the Viking Energy wind farm is expected to be £930 million across its lifetime. It is estimated the Shetland Charitable Trust will receive around £23 million, on average, each year. This income can then be used to support projects in the arts, environment, leisure and care sectors in Shetland.

Expert investigation validates Vestas’ blade detachment reasoning

Referring to an investigation carried out by risk management firm Det Norske Veritas (DNV) related to the recent incident where a blade piece detached from Vestas’ V112-3.0 MW prototype wind turbine in Lem, Denmark, Vestas has shared that the cause of the incident is related to a human error in the manually produced prototype blade. 

DNV carried out an investigation of the incident, which took place last month.

Vestas stated that DNV’s final conclusion thus confirms its own conclusion.

Vestas mentioned that a blade manufactured for its V112-3.0 MW prototype fell off because it was not subjected to the company’s normal verification and reliability testing programme.

A seven-metre part of the manually produced prototype blade – one of the first three blades manufactured for the V112-3.0 MW prototype programme –fell while running tests. The company explained that manually produced prototypes will always involve a significant higher risk of failure than by automated production processes. 

REpower strengthens its presence in Germany

REpower Systems, in conjunction with North German wind farm project developer Denker & Wulf AG, has signed a contract for the delivery of 22 wind turbines to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The REpower 3.4M104 turbines, each with a rated output of 3.4MW, are planned for the Hohen Luckow project southwest of Rostock and are to be constructed by summer 2012.

REpower highlighted that this contract is the first major project in which REpower is going to install this turbine type with a hub height of 128m and a concrete and steel hybrid tower.

The company will be responsible for the servicing and maintenance of the turbines. REpower and Denker & Wulf have concluded a contract for an integrated service package (ISP) with a 15-year term.

For REpower Systems, the development follows its decision to establish an independent company named REpower Systems GmbH to serve Germany and Austria.

The company will have its offices at Group headquarters in Hamburg. It will bundle sales, project management and service of onshore wind turbines in these markets.