off shore wind energy and its advantages

Offshore wind energy and its advantages

Wind is air in motion. Since earth’s surface is made of various land water formations. It absorb the sun’s radiation on evenly, wind is produced by uneven heating of earth’s surface by sun.

On shore, wind energy  has been utilized for generation for more than  two thousand years. In modern times, wind energy is mainly used to generate electricity primarily through use of wind turbines. Wind flows over the airfoil -shaped blades of wind turbines, causing lift (similar to the lifting force on air plane wings) causing turbine blades to turn. The blades are connected to a driving shaft that turn the electric generator to produce electricity.

Offshore wind energy sources

Offshore wind turbines are being used in a number of countries to harness energy of moving air over oceans and convert into electricity. Off shore wind tend to flow at higher speeds than on shore winds, thus allowing turbines to produce more electricity. Much of this potential energy is near major population (and energy load) center where energy cost are high and land based wind development opportunities are limited.

Because the potential energy produced from the wind is directly proportional to the cube of wind speed increased speeds of only few miles per hour can produce significantly larger amount of electricity. For instance a turbine at site with an average wind speed of 16 mph would produce 50 per cent more electricity than at a site  with same lab-our  and average wind speeds of 14mph.

Many offshore areas have ideal wind conditions for wind facilities , Denmark and U.K. have installed large offshore wind facilities to take advantage of consistent winds, today produce more than  600 MW of offshore wind energy in installed world wide all shallow water (,<30 meters) off coasts of Europe . Proposed off shore wind projects through 2010 amount to more than 11000 MW with 500 MW each in U.S and Canada and remainder in Europe and Asia.

Commercial-scale offshore wind facilities currently are similar to the onshore wind facilities but with modifications to prevent corrosion and protect against wave and wind Interactions. Because  roughly 90 per cent of U.S. resources are over water that are much deeper than European water where commercial facilities are currently sited, new technology are being developed (e.g strengthened tower foundation) to harness the wind in harsher condition associated with deep waters.

Offshore wind facilities today are generally developed and operated as follows . Once a suitable place for wind facility is located piles are driven into seabed. For each turbine  a support structure and tower to support turbine assembly, to house the remaining plant components, and to provide sheltered access for personnel are attached to the piles. After turbine (generally three blade rotor connected through the drive train to generator ) is assembled, wind direction sensors turn the nacelle( a shell that encloses the gearbox, generator  and blade hub) to face into wind and maximize the amount of energy collected. Wind moving over the blades make them to rotate around  horizontal hub connected to a shaft inside nacelle . This shaft, via gear box powers a generator to convert the energy into electricity.

Offshore turbines have technical needs not be required of on shore turbines due to the more demanding climate environmental exposure offshore . Offshore turbines look similar to those of onshore with several design modifications. This include strengthening towers to cope with wind-wave interactions, protecting the nacelle . Components from sea air and adding brightly colored access plat form for navigation and maintain. Offshore turbines are typically equipped with corrosion protection, internal climate control ,high grade exterior paint, and built in service cranes. To minimize expensive service, offshore turbines may have automatic greasing systems to lubricate bearings and blades and preheating and cooling systems to maintain gear oil temperature within a narrow temperature range. Lighting protection system minimize the risk of damage from lighting strikes that occurs in frequently in some location offshore. There are also navigation and aerial warning lights. Turbines and towers are typically painted in light blue or grey to help them blend into sky. The lower section of support towers may be painted bright colors  (e.g. yellow to aid navigation and high light the structure  for passing the vehicles.

Off shore wind international growth

European offshore wind power grew nicely in 2010. Europe experienced record growth in offshore wind power capacity last year 2010. They installed 308 new offshore wind turbines which represents a 51 per cent increase in installed capacity over 2009. Overall nine offshore wind firms in five Europe countries came online, yielding 883 MW of new generating capacity.

The European total 1,136 off shore turbines produce a total of almost  3 Giga watts  (2964 MW) and supply enough power for about 2.9 million households. Breaking it down by country the U.K. is in lead with total off shore wind capacity 1,341 MW ,next comes Denmark (854MW),the Netherlands (249 MW),Belgium(195 MW) ,Sweden (165MW),Germany (92 MW),Finland (26 MW) ,Ireland (25 MW)and Norway (2.3 MW).

Next year total European wind power capacity is expected to further increase between 1000 and 1500 MW and while its easy to pinpoint  fingers at the U.S. offshore wind capacity which right now is virtually nil, there are a couple of projects that are getting close-cape wind Massachusetts and Block Island in Rhode Island. One thing to keep in mind is that turbines off U.S. coast line have to deal with frequent tropical storms and hurricanes. Turbines built off U.S. coast lines are going to have to be built and installed differently.

Optimizing off shore wind farm planning, design and construction

China is giving top priority  to develop off shore wind power projects to meet ambitious energy market. Its offshore wind potential is estimated at more than 750 GW compared to 253 GW of land-based wind power potential, according to china meteorological administration. In mean time government is putting out large scale offshore wind power  concession projects to tender. The national energy administration has also asked the country’s 11 coastal provinces to report plans for offshore wind farm concession projects.

These tremendous development opportunities require the industry to be effectively equipped with the right skills, technique and technology to optimize planning, design, construction and operations of wind power projects in complex and difficult offshore operational environments.

With that said ,it is of incredible value to bring experiences and lessons learn t from successful projects all around would put together  with an in depth analysis of most pressing challenges in this spinning market
energy is pleased to present offshore wind power development ASIA -2011 and bring the key shareholders together to benefit from this carefully researched and designed off shore wind energy platform.