Carbon Trust leads industry collaboration to slash costs of offshore wind 

21 October 2008
Five major international energy companies join forces with the Carbon Trust in a £30 million initiative to reduce the cost of energy from offshore wind by 10% or more 

The Carbon Trust has signed a groundbreaking agreement in offshore wind with five international energy companies: DONG Energy (Denmark), Airtricity Developments (UK), RWE Innogy (Germany), ScottishPower Renewables (UK) and StatoilHydro (Norway). This marks the start of a major new research, development and demonstration initiative called the Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA). Worth up to £30m over the next five years, the OWA aims to cut the cost of offshore wind energy by 10 per cent or more through a combination of wind farm cost reductions and performance improvements.

Offshore wind has the greatest potential of all renewable energy technologies to deliver the UK’s 2020 renewable energy targets but delivering this potential will be a significant challenge. This new initiative is therefore designed to help to tackle one of the key barriers to offshore wind deployment - the rising costs of projects - which have more than doubled over the last five years. It will do this by taking up key opportunities in technology development in a collaborative approach which shares the associated costs and risks. For this reason the launch of the OWA marks a major step forward for the industry.

The OWA represents the Carbon Trust’s part of its joint initiative with the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), launched in December 2007.

Mark Williamson, Director of Innovations at the Carbon Trust, said:
“Offshore wind has huge potential to cut the UK’s carbon emissions, generate thousands of new jobs and help us meet our 2020 renewable targets. But high costs and risks have been seriously holding back deployment.  We’ve identified a range of opportunities to reduce costs, increase performance and improve the economic viability of offshore wind farms. This new collaborative initiative brings together five leading energy companies to encourage technology innovation and significantly accelerate growth in the sector at this crucial time.”

Mike O'Brien, Minister of State at Department for Energy and Climate Change, said:
"The UK now generates more electricity from offshore wind than any other country in the world. This announcement from the Carbon Trust is great news because it will help keep that lead position, assisting us to reach our targets on renewable energy generation and cutting greenhouse gas emissions."

The Offshore Wind Accelerator will focus on cost and risk reduction in the short to medium term, covering key topics related to wind farm design, construction and operation, including:

  • Offshore foundations – developing novel forms of wind turbine foundation with potential for lower capital and installation costs than designs currently in use, including consideration of deep water sites.
  • Wake effects – consolidating knowledge about wake effects in large arrays to improve the accuracy of yield assessment processes, allowing wind farm layouts to be optimised and financing costs to be reduced.
  • Access, logistics and transportation – developing access systems for wind farm construction and operation that are both economic and safe in order to maximise turbine availability and therefore wind farm yields; and
  • Electrical systems – assessing opportunities to maximise the efficiency of offshore wind farm electrical systems, minimising losses in both the intra-farm array and transmission to shore in order to maximise delivered electricity.

The initial phase of the OWA will involve a set of detailed feasibility studies, tenders for which will be invited later in 2008.  Large-scale demonstration projects are expected to follow from 2010 onwards.

Dr. Paddy O’Kane, General Manager of Technical Services at Airtricity Developments (UK), said:
“Offshore wind farms are now proven technology. However, while the cost of producing energy from onshore wind farms continues to converge with energy costs from conventional power plants, advances are still required to accelerate the cost competiveness of constructing offshore. Airtricity believe that this collaborative program is a significant step forward. The OWA project will act as a catalyst to deliver new innovations as well as accelerating technology transfer from existing offshore industries.”  

Jørgen Skøt Holmgaard, Head of Technology Development within renewable energy at Dong Energy (Denmark), commented:
“DONG Energy is pleased to be part of Carbon Trusts Offshore Wind Accelerator programme. We are eager to see development of solutions that will help to unfold the huge potential of offshore wind power and we believe that DONG Energy can both contribute to and benefit from participation in the OWA.”

Kevin McCullough, Chief Operating Officer of RWE Innogy, said:
"This is an excellent initiative by the Carbon Trust, and brings together five leading renewables businesses.  Reducing the cost of offshore wind, especially in current economic circumstances, is vital, and as the industry expands into deeper waters conditions will inevitably be more challenging.  A major and rapid expansion of offshore wind is essential to meet the EU 2020 target, and the OWA is extremely important for the industry Europe-wide."

Keith Anderson, Director of ScottishPower Renewables (UK), said:
“ScottishPower Renewables is delighted to be a partner in the Carbon Trust's Offshore Wind Accelerator programme. The enormous offshore wind resource will play a key role in meeting UK renewables targets, but to deploy the resource quickly we will need to overcome a number of technical issues. We therefore welcome this programme which aims to resolve these issues in a collaborative manner.”

Jan-Fredrik Stadaas, Head of wind project development, StatoilHydro (Norway), said:
“In order to ensure successful development and operation of offshore wind farms, it is of vital importance to focus on technical challenges within this area. Greater water depth, larger wind farms and larger distance from shore force us developers to bring forward improved or new technologies. The Offshore Wind Accelerator project will hopefully demonstrate technologies which enable us to build and operate large offshore wind farms in a safe and more cost effective manner.”

Maria McCaffery, CEO of the British Wind Energy Association, said:
"Offshore wind is a vital technology not just for the UK but for many other countries. This initiative will help establish the UK as the world leader in innovation offshore and consequently open up many opportunities to export equipment and expertise. The Carbon Trust and the project partners are to be congratulated on their commitment to this sector."

- Ends –

For further information or interviews with the Carbon Trust or any of the companies involved in the Offshore Wind Accelerator, please contact the Carbon Trust Press Office on 020 7544 3100 or carbontrust@fishburn-hedges.co.uk

 
 

 

 

The Carbon Trust

  • The Carbon Trust is an independent company set up by government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies. The Carbon Trust works with UK business and the public sector through its work in five complementary areas: insights, solutions, innovations, enterprises and investments. Together these help to explain, deliver, develop, create and finance low carbon enterprise.
  • The Carbon Trust is funded by Government. 
  • For more information on the Carbon Trust visit http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/ or call the Carbon Trust Advice Line on 0800 085 2005.
  • The Carbon Trust and the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) launched a joint RD&D initiative in offshore wind in December 2007. The OWA represents the Carbon Trusts part of this initiative. This will focus on delivering projects in wind farm design, construction and operation. The ETI will be announcing details of the projects it will be delivering in early 2009. By co-ordinating work in this way the two organisations aim to maximise their combined impact in accelerating the deployment of offshore wind in the UK. 
  • Last week (14th October) the Carbon Trust published the report: ‘Offshore wind power: big challenge, big opportunity’.  Its analysis showed that offshore wind has the greatest potential of all renewable energy technologies to deliver the UK’s 2020 renewable energy targets as set by the EU, but delivering this potential will be a significant challenge.

DONG Energy (Denmark)

  • DONG Energy is one of Northern Europe’s leading energy groups. We are headquartered in Denmark. Our business is based on procuring, producing, distributing, trading and selling energy and related products in Northern Europe. The company delivered revenue of DKK 41.6 billion in 2007 (approx. EUR 5.6 billion or USD 8.3 billion). DONG Energy has more than 5,000 employees. For further information, see http://www.dongenergy.com/.

Airtricity Developments (UK)

  • Airtricity is the renewable energy development division of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE).  The company has responsibility for the development of onshore and offshore wind farms in the UK, Ireland, Europe and Asia as well as developing hydro and marine projects.
  • The company is currently developing two of the worlds larger wind farms, a 504 MW Offshore wind farm, Greater Gabbard located off the Suffolk coast of England and a 456MW onshore wind farm, Clyde located in the Upper Clyde Valley in Scotland.”
  • Airtricity was acquired by SSE in February 2008 and the combined Airtricity / SSE team has developed 40 wind farms across Europe and North America resulting in over 1500MW, making it a leading wind farm developer.  The company’s goal is to protect the future of our planet by delivering renewable energy with passion, innovation and integrity.

RWE Innogy

  • RWE Innogy was created in February 2008, is the Europe-wide renewables business of the RWE group, bringing together the renewables parts of existing RWE companies and with ambitious expansion plans. It will invest at least 1 bn Euros every year. Npower renewables is the UK branch of RWE Innogy.

StatoilHydro (Norway)

  • StatoilHydro is an integrated technology-based international energy company primarily focused on upstream oil and gas operations. Headquartered in Norway, we have more than 30 years of experience from the Norwegian continental shelf, pioneering complex offshore projects under the toughest conditions. Our culture is founded on strong values and a high ethical standard. We aim to deliver long-term growth and continue to develop technologies and manage projects that will meet the world’s energy and climate challenges in a sustainable way. StatoilHydro is listed on NYSE and Oslo Stock Exchange.

ScottishPower Renewables (UK)

  • ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) is the UK’s largest onshore windfarm developer and recently received consent for its first offshore project in partnership with DONG Energy and Eurus Energy. SPR is currently building Europe’s largest windfarm, 322MW, on Eaglesham Moor near Glasgow and has recently announced plans for the world’s largest tidal renewable projects.  For further information, see http://www.scottishpowerrenewables.com/
 
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