Floating wind turbines in the UK one step closer
A pilot site is proposed off Peterhead in north east Scotland
Late last year, RWE Innogy pulled out of the Round 3 Bristol Channel Zone which would have seen the development of the 1.2GW Atlantic Array wind farm had it received development consent.
The site emerged as a technically challenging area because of the depth of water and rocky seabed. Given the current market conditions and the technical challenges of the project, RWE Innogy took the view that the Atlantic Array project was not financially viable.
However, the Crown Estate firmly believes that the Bristol Channel zone remains one with favourable wind resource, and that likely development in technology, could allow the construction of a wind farm not only in this location, but in and others that are similarly challenging – enter The Hywind Concept.
Floating wind farm development in the UK
The Hywind Concept has been developed by Statoil and is the world’s first full scale floating wind turbine (Statoil are already building two offshore wind farms in the UK). A full scale demonstrator (Hywind 1) has been successfully operated off the Norwegian west coast since 2009.
As a result Statoil is now planning to build a pilot site to demonstrate the operation of five floating turbines as the next step towards developing floating wind on a commercial scale. If the project goes ahead, the site will be located in the Buchan Deep, about 15 miles off Peterhead in north east Scotland.
Diagrammatic layout of Hywind project off Peterhead
The floating turbines will be attached to the seabed by three mooring lines and anchors. The turbines will have a maximum height above sea level of 101m and will have a rotor diameter of up to 154m giving a clearance above sea level of 24 m. The turbines will be between 720m and 1500m apart and the mooring lines might be anything up to 1000m long.
Floating wind platform
Added to this, ‘Wave Hub’, the offshore renewable energy test facility of St Ives in Cornwall, has applied for consent to install and operate a floating wind platform demonstrator in one of its four wave device berths.
The application for consent and a Marine Licence has been submitted to the UK’s Marine Management Organisation and follows a decision by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) in March 2013 to test a floating offshore wind platform at Wave Hub.
US-based naval architecture and marine engineering firm Glosten Associates is designing the PelaStar tension leg platform prototype in partnership with Alstom, using a 6MW offshore wind turbine.
Opening up new areas
The aim of the ETI project is to accelerate the commercial application of floating foundations for wind turbines which could open up new deep water areas for deployment and dramatically reduce the cost of offshore wind energy technology.
These technologies may well overcome the obstacles that are in the way of developing possible sites around our coast at the moment and which led to the cancellation of the Atlantic Array.
Given the Government’s renewable energy targets and the Crown Estate’s enthusiasm for encouraging the technical development of all forms of Offshore Renewable Energy, it is highly likely that we will see more such concept and technical demonstrators appearing around our shores.
RYA position
In the meantime the RYA is working together with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Government’s Nautical and Offshore Renewable Energy Liaison Group to ensure that safety of navigation remains paramount in any planned project and that developers are fully conversant with the RYA position on all forms of offshore renewable energy.
Images:
Diagrammatic layout of Hywind project off Peterhead - Xodus Group Ltd environmental consultants.
PelaStar image - The Glosten Associates.