scholarly journals Economic Feasibility of Floating Offshore Wind Farms in the North of Spain

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Castro-Santos ◽  
A. Rute Bento ◽  
Dina Silva ◽  
Nadia Salvação ◽  
C. Guedes Soares
Keyword(s):  
Wind Farm ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
The North ◽  
Wind Structure ◽  
Cost Of Energy ◽  
North Of Spain

This paper assesses the economic feasibility of offshore wind farms installed in deep waters considering their internal rate of return (IRR), net present value (NPV), and levelized cost of energy (LCOE). The method proposed has three phases: geographic phase, economic phase, and restrictions phase. The purpose of the geographic step is to obtain the input values, which will be used in the economic phase. Then, the economic parameters are calculated considering the inputs provided previously. Finally, the bathymetric restriction is added to the economic maps. The case study focused on the Cantabric and North-Atlantic coasts of Spain, areas that have not been studied previously in economic terms regarding floating offshore wind technology. Moreover, several alternatives have been considered, taking into account the type of floating offshore wind structure and the electric tariff. Results indicate which is the best floating offshore wind structure with respect to LCOE, IRR, and NPV, and where is the best location for the connection of a floating offshore wind farm in the region selected.

scholarly journals Influence of Size on the Economic Feasibility of Floating Offshore Wind Farms

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Castro-Santos ◽  
Almudena Filgueira-Vizoso ◽  
Carlos Álvarez-Feal ◽  
Luis Carral
Keyword(s):  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Structures ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Total Power ◽  
Offshore Wind Farm ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Cost Of Energy ◽  
Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

This paper uses a method to analyze the economic influence of the size of floating offshore wind farms. The economic aspects analyzed, LCOE (Levelized Cost Of Energy) and costs, depend on the number of floating offshore wind turbines, which establishes the effect of the size of the farm. This influence has been carried out for a map in a specific location. Regarding the case study, 18 alternatives have been considered taking into account the total power of the farm and the types of floating platforms. These aspects have been studied for the location of Galicia (Spain). Results indicate how LCOE and costs vary when the size of the floating offshore wind farm is increased for the studied kinds of offshore structures. Results are useful for planning an offshore wind farm in deep waters in future investments.

scholarly journals A Comparative Analysis of Economics of PMSG and SCSG Floating Offshore Wind Farms

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1386
Author(s):  
Ga-Eun Jung ◽  
Hae-Jin Sung ◽  
Minh-Chau Dinh ◽  
Minwon Park ◽  
Hyunkyoung Shin
Keyword(s):  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Synchronous Generator ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Turbine ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Superconducting Wire ◽  
Cost Of Energy ◽  
Current Price

The biggest obstacle to using a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) for a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) is the weight. A superconducting synchronous generator (SCSG) can be an alternative to this problem. In this paper, first, the weight and volume of a 10 MW class PMSG and SCSG for a large floating offshore wind farm (FOWF) were compared. Reflecting this, the economic feasibility of a 200 MW class FOWF based on a semi-submersible platform was compared and analyzed. The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) was used to compare the economics of the two types of FOWF, and the LCOE of the SCSG type FOWF was 6 (USD/MWh) more expensive than that of the PMSG type FOWF. However, if the superconducting wire price is reduced by 40% compared to the current price, the economic feasibility of the SCSG type FOWF can be secured. Considering only the weight, the SCSG type FOWF is far superior to the PMSG type FOWF. With the trend of falling superconducting wire prices and improving critical current, the SCSG type FOWF is expected to become a definite alternative to large-capacity wind farms, and the economic feasibility is expected within the next five years.

scholarly journals The Economic Feasibility of Floating Offshore Wave Energy Farms in the North of Spain

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Castro-Santos ◽  
Ana Bento ◽  
Carlos Guedes Soares
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
The North ◽  
Cost Of Energy ◽  
Offshore Wave ◽  
North Of Spain

A technique to analyse the economic viability of offshore farms composed of wave energy converters is proposed. Firstly, the inputs, whose value will be considered afterwards in the economic step, was calculated using geographic information software. Secondly, the energy produced by each wave converter was calculated. Then the economic factors were computed. Finally, the restriction that considers the depth of the region (bathymetry) was put together with the economic outputs, whose value depends on the floating Wave Energy Converter (WEC). The method proposed was applied to the Cantabric and Atlantic coasts in the north of Spain, a region with a good offshore wave energy resource. In addition, three representative WECs were studied: Pelamis, AquaBuoy and Wave Dragon; and five options for electric tariffs were analysed. Results show the Wave Energy Converter that has the best results regarding its LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy), IRR (Internal Rate of Return) and NPV (Net Present Value), and which area is best for the development of a wave farm.

scholarly journals A Spatial Analysis of the Potentials for Offshore Wind Farm Locations in the North Sea Region: Challenges and Opportunities

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gusatu ◽  
Yamu ◽  
Zuidema ◽  
Faaij
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Water Depth ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
The North ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The North Sea

Over the last decade, the accelerated transition towards cleaner means of producing energy has been clearly prioritised by the European Union through large-scale planned deployment of wind farms in the North Sea. From a spatial planning perspective, this has not been a straight-forward process, due to substantial spatial conflicts with the traditional users of the sea, especially with fisheries and protected areas. In this article, we examine the availability of offshore space for wind farm deployment, from a transnational perspective, while taking into account different options for the management of the maritime area through four scenarios. We applied a mixed-method approach, combining expert knowledge and document analysis with the spatial visualisation of existing and future maritime spatial claims. Our calculations clearly indicate a low availability of suitable locations for offshore wind in the proximity of the shore and in shallow waters, even when considering its multi-use with fisheries and protected areas. However, the areas within 100 km from shore and with a water depth above –120 m attract greater opportunities for both single use (only offshore wind farms) and multi-use (mainly with fisheries), from an integrated planning perspective. On the other hand, the decrease of energy targets combined with sectoral planning result in clear limitations to suitable areas for offshore wind farms, indicating the necessity to consider areas with a water depth below –120 m and further than 100 km from shore. Therefore, despite the increased costs of maintenance and design adaptation, the multi-use of space can be a solution for more sustainable, stakeholder-engaged and cost-effective options in the energy deployment process. This paper identifies potential pathways, as well as challenges and opportunities for future offshore space management with the aim of achieving the 2050 renewable energy targets.

scholarly journals Investigating the Converter-Driven Stability of an Offshore HVDC System

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2341
Author(s):  
Matthias Quester ◽  
Fisnik Loku ◽  
Otmane El Azzati ◽  
Leonel Noris ◽  
Yongtao Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Farm ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Impedance Measurement ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Voltage Source ◽  
Response Analysis ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
The North ◽  
Ac Transmission

Offshore wind farms are increasingly built in the North Sea and the number of HVDC systems transmitting the wind power to shore increases as well. To connect offshore wind farms to adjacent AC transmission systems, onshore and offshore modular multilevel converters transform the transmitted power from AC to DC and vice versa. Additionally, modern wind farms mainly use wind turbines connected to the offshore point of common coupling via voltage source converters. However, converters and their control systems can cause unwanted interactions, referred to as converter-driven stability problems. The resulting instabilities can be predicted by applying an impedance-based analysis in the frequency domain. Considering that the converter models and system data are often confidential and cannot be exchanged in real systems, this paper proposes an enhanced impedance measurement method suitable for black-box applications to investigate the interactions. A frequency response analysis identifies coupling currents depending on the control system. The currents are subsequently added to the impedance models to achieve higher accuracy. The proposed method is applied to assess an offshore HVDC system’s converter-driven stability, using impedance measurements of laboratory converters and a wind turbine converter controller replica. The results show that the onshore modular multilevel converter interacts with AC grids of moderate short-circuit ratios. However, no interactions are identified between the offshore converter and the connected wind farm.

scholarly journals Optimal Micro-Siting of Weathervaning Floating Wind Turbines

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 886
Author(s):  
Javier Serrano González ◽  
Manuel Burgos Payán ◽  
Jesús Manuel Riquelme Santos ◽  
Ángel Gaspar González Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Wind Direction ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Classical Solutions ◽  
Feasible Region ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Cost Of Energy ◽  
Wind Farm Design

This paper presents a novel tool for optimizing floating offshore wind farms based on weathervaning turbines. This solution is grounded on the ability of the assembly (wind turbine plus floater) to self-orientate into the wind direction, as this concept is allowed to freely pivot on a single point. This is a passive yaw potential solution for floating wind farms currently in the demonstration phase. A genetic algorithm is proposed for optimizing the levelised cost of energy by determining the geographical coordinates of the pivot points (i.e., the position over which the assembly can rotate to self-orient to the incoming wind direction). A tailored evaluation module is proposed to take into account the weathervaning motion around the pivot point depending on the incoming wind direction. The results obtained show the suitability of the proposed method to solve the addressed problem under realistic conditions. Additionally, the influence of the feasible region defined by the plot and the maximum area occupied on floating offshore wind farm design are also analysed in the proposed test cases. These deployable area constraints are of great importance for the viability of this technology, as it requires more space than classical solutions anchored to a fixed point.

scholarly journals Use of an INLA Latent Gaussian Modeling Approach to Assess Bird Population Changes Due to the Development of Offshore Wind Farms

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raul Vilela ◽  
Claudia Burger ◽  
Ansgar Diederichs ◽  
Fabian E. Bachl ◽  
Lesley Szostek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
The North ◽  
Marine Habitats ◽  
Spatio Temporal

The utilization of marine renewable energies such as offshore wind farming leads to globally expanding human activities in marine habitats. While knowledge on the responses to offshore wind farms and associated shipping traffic is accumulating now at a fast pace, it becomes important to assess the population impacts on species affected by those activities. In the North Sea, the protected diver species Red-throated Diver (Gavia stellata) and Black-throated Diver (Gavia arctica) widely avoid offshore wind farms. We used an explicit spatio-temporal Bayesian model to get a robust estimate of the diver population during the spring season between 2001 and 2018, based on a set of aerial surveys from long-term monitoring programs within the German North Sea. Despite the erection of 20 offshore wind farms in the study area and marked responses of divers to wind farms, model results indicated that there was no population decline, and overall numbers fluctuated around 16,600 individuals, with average annual 95% CI ranging between 13,400 and 21,360 individuals. Although, avoidance behavior due to wind farm development led to a more narrowly focused spatial distribution of the birds centered in the persistent high concentration zone in the Eastern German Bight Special Protection Area, the results provide no indication of negative fitness consequences on these long-lived species. However, more research is needed on habitat use and food availability in this regard.

scholarly journals Pathways to bring the costs down of floating offshore wind farms in the Atlantic Area

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan José Cartelle-Barros ◽  
David Cordal-Iglesias ◽  
Eugenio Baita-Saavedra ◽  
Almudena Filgueira-Vizoso ◽  
Bernardino Couñago-Lorenzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Offshore Wind Farm ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Atlantic Area

Abstract. Every nations' development lies on the electricity production, since it facilitates life and development of their society (heating, lighting, etc.). Nevertheless, conventional power plants, which use fossil fuels, cause environmental impacts, such as global warming, acidification, eutrophication, among many others. In addition, these conventional resources generate a dependence of external providers, which obstructs the progress of the developing countries. Renewable energies came to solve part of these problems. In this context, wind energy is one the technologies with more expansion all over the world. Offshore locations have a better wind resource than onshore ones and their exploitation is lower. The objective of this work is to present a holistic approach to assess the feasibility of a floating offshore wind farms in a life cycle perspective. The methodology proposed analyses the Net Present Value, the Internal Rate of Return, the Payback Period and the Levelized Cost of Energy of the farm. The case study is built based on a disruptive floating spar-type platform called TELWIND®, to be implemented in the Atlantic Area region. Results indicate how important these parameters are in economic terms and shows the pathways to reduce the costs of this type of infrastructures Furthermore, the methodology proposed allows the selection of the best region where a floating offshore wind farm can be installed. Finally, this study can be useful for Governments and relevant authorities to determine the best location of a floating offshore wind farm and develop the roadmap of offshore wind in their country.

scholarly journals Temporal patterns in offshore bird abundance during the breeding season at the Dutch North Sea coast

2021 ◽  
Vol 168 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens A. van Erp ◽  
E. Emiel van Loon ◽  
Kees J. Camphuysen ◽  
Judy Shamoun-Baranes
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Season ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Bird Abundance ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea

AbstractThe expanding development of offshore wind farms brings a growing concern about the human impact on seabirds. To assess this impact a better understanding of offshore bird abundance is needed. The aim of this study was to investigate offshore bird abundance in the breeding season and model the effect of temporally predictable environmental variables. We used a bird radar, situated at the edge of a wind farm (52.427827° N, 4.185345° E), to record hourly aerial bird abundance at the North Sea near the Dutch coast between May 1st and July 15th in 2019 and 2020, of which 1879 h (51.5%) were analysed. The effect of sun azimuth, week in the breeding season, and astronomic tide was evaluated using generalized additive modelling. Sun azimuth and week in the breeding season had a modest and statistically significant (p < 0.001) effect on bird abundance, while astronomic tide did not. Hourly predicted abundance peaked after sunrise and before sunset, and abundance increased throughout the breeding season until the end of June, after which it decreased slightly. Though these effects were significant, a large portion of variance in hourly abundance remained unexplained. The high variability in bird abundance at scales ranging from hours up to weeks emphasizes the need for long-term and continuous data which radar technology can provide.

scholarly journals Simultaneous Optimisation of Cable Connection Schemes and Capacity for Offshore Wind Farms via a Modified Bat Algorithm

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanhang Qi ◽  
Peng Hou ◽  
Liang Yang ◽  
Guangya Yang
Keyword(s):  
Capital Investment ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Mathematical Problem ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Bat Algorithm ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Cost Of Energy ◽  
Modified Bat Algorithm ◽  
Cable Connection

Offshore wind energy has attracted worldwide attention and investments in the last decade due to the stability and abundance of wind resources. As one of the main components of this, internal array cables have a great impact on the levelised cost of energy of offshore wind farms, and thus their connection layout is a matter of concern. In this paper, a classical mathematical problem—the traveling salesman problem, which belongs to the field of graph theory—is applied to solve the offshore wind farm cable connection layout optimization problem. Both the capital investment on cables, cable laying, and the cost of power losses associated with array cables are considered in the proposed model. A modified bat algorithm is presented to resolve the problem. Furthermore, a cable crossing detection method is also adopted to avoid obtaining crossed cable connection layouts. The effectiveness was verified through a case study.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document