Radical new designs shortlisted in a global competition run by the UK’s Carbon Trust are set to accelerate the installation of thousands of wind turbines around Britain’s coast by slashing the costs of construction and opening up deeper waters for development.
Over 100 engineering companies from around the world submitted their ideas on how to cost effectively build offshore wind turbines in severe weather conditions as far as 100 miles out to sea and in waters up to 60m deep. Each design was rigorously assessed by an expert panel of judges including the Carbon Trust’s partners: Airtricity Developments, DONG Energy, RWE Innogy owner of Npower Renewables, Scottish Power Renewables and Statoil.
The seven new foundation designs unveiled today have the potential to revolutionise the construction of offshore wind farms, reducing costs and overcoming engineering challenges currently facing the industry. They provide a glimpse of the future with radical concepts such as floating turbines anchored to the sea bed and spider-like tripod structures.
Lower costs are vital if Britain is to install the 6,000 or so offshore wind turbines needed to ensure offshore wind meets a quarter of our electricity needs by 2020. The current price tag is up to £75bn with deep water foundations accounting for 20% or more of a wind farm’s total project costs. The goal of the new designs is to reduce the current costs of foundations by at least a quarter. This will save billions of pounds and enable the industry to deploy turbines in the much deeper and rougher sea conditions that will be experienced by the significantly larger offshore wind projects beginning in 2012 as part of the Crown Estate’s third round of licensing.
Keystone Engineering (USA) - Inward battered guide structure
Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust, said:
“Building thousands of turbines offshore to provide a quarter of our power needs is the greatest engineering challenge we face in the coming decade. Without new thinking to cut costs many planned projects could remain on the drawing board putting our carbon targets and energy security at risk. We must urgently re-engineer our energy system and building offshore wind farms while creating onshore jobs must play a central role.”
Latest figures released by the British Wind Energy Association show that UK wind energy has now reached 4GW of installed capacity of which 600MW is offshore, however a continued focus on innovation reliability and cost reduction is vital to deliver the UK’s offshore programme.
The winds blowing off Britain’s coasts are some of the most powerful on the globe and must be harnessed to ensure the UK reaches its target of 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020. Round 3 presents even more treacherous conditions than any wind farm sites to-date around the UK’s coast, which makes building and operating future wind farms offshore an expensive business.
Rob Hastings, Director of the marine estate at The Crown Estate said: “Offshore wind energy generation is starting to mature, as the landowner of the seabed, The Crown Estate welcomes this competition and hopes that these new designs reduce capital and investment costs required to deliver offshore wind as an alternative, secure energy supply. This is another step towards the successful delivery of 40GW by 2020 that industry has put on the table.”
The prize, however, is substantial: the offshore wind industry is not only vital to meet the 2020 renewable energy target but also has the potential to generate £65 billion of net economic value and some 220,000 jobs for the UK by 2050.
The designs will receive up to £100,000 support for concept development, engineering analysis, commercial feasibility and technical assistance. Of the shortlisted designs revealed today, up to three final winners will have their designs built and installed in large scale demonstration projects in 2010-2012 with funding from a consortium led by the Carbon Trust.
While the UK alone needs more than 6,000 new offshore foundations by 2020, the global number of offshore wind turbines will reach 15,000 or more: a global market for foundations worth up to £2.5bn a year, which shows clear market potential for the winning designs.
Footnotes
Seven leading designs have been shortlisted as part of a multi-million pound Carbon Trust competition which was launched in May to find wind turbine foundation designs suitable for deeper sea water conditions (30-60m), where the next generation of offshore wind farms will be built.
Best seven were selected based on:
- Manufacturing costs
- Transport and installation costs
- Potential for volume cost savings
- Structural design and durability
- Maintainability and turbine accessibility
- Decommissioning and removal costs
Names, locations and technical descriptions of each of the shortlisted designs are as follows:
- Gifford/BMT/Freyssinet (UK / France) - Large concrete gravity base structure, transported to site by a submersible transport and installation barge
- Glosten Associates (USA) - Floating wind turbine foundation based on Tension Leg Platform (TLP) technology, comprising a buoyant hull, tendons, and novel anchors
- Suction Pile Technology / Wood Group (Netherlands/UK) - Asymmetric suction bucket tripod foundation which can be transported from the quayside with the turbine already installed
- Keystone Engineering (USA) - Inward battered guide structure – three supporting legs angled around a central pile in a twisted jacket approach
- Offshore Wind Power Systems of Europe (USA) - Titan – Platform floated into position then its three legs are lowered to the sea floor, similar to a jack-up drilling rig
- Ballast Nedam (NL) – Drilled concrete monopile
- MBD Offshore (DK) - Suction bucket monopile, primary material is steel, using buoyant installation and delivery
The project forms part of phase one of the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) which is a unique collaboration with five major international energy companies: DONG Energy (Denmark), Airtricity Developments (UK), RWE Innogy parent company of RWE Npower Renewables (Germany), Scottish Power Renewables (UK) and Statoil (Norway). More information on the OWA is available at: www.carbontrust.co.uk/offshorewind
The Offshore Wind Accelerator is worth £30m in total with up to £20m earmarked for the foundations project.
- 29GW is needed to ensure offshore winds meet a quarter of our electricity needs by 2020.
- Round 3 offshore wind projects will be built from 2012. The Crown Estate will announce next month the successful tenders as part of its round 3 leasing programme for the delivery of up to 25 GW (gigawatts) of new offshore windfarm sites by 2020.
The Carbon Trust
- The Carbon Trust is an independent company set up in 2001 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.
- We cut carbon emissions now by giving business and the public sector expert advice, finance and certification to help them reduce their carbon footprint and to stimulate demand for low carbon products and services. Through our work, we’ve already helped save over 23 million tonnes of carbon, delivering costs savings of around £1.4 billion. We aim to help our customers cut a further 17MtCO2 and save another £1 billion in the next three years
- We cut future carbon emissions by developing new low carbon technologies. We are helping the UK become a global hub for low carbon innovation. We do this through funding and managing projects, investing and collaborating on low carbon technologies and by identifying market barriers and practical ways to overcome them. Our work on commercialising new technologies will deliver savings of up to 23 million tonnes of carbon a year by 2050.
- The Carbon Trust is also undertaking world leading projects on offshore wind, algae and advanced solar power.