Geological data incorporation into an opportunities model for Irish offshore wind energy to inform engineering considerations and habitat change potential

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared Peters ◽  
Ross O’Connell ◽  
Andrew Wheeler ◽  
Valerie Cummins ◽  
Jimmy Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Benthic Habitat ◽  
Offshore Wind Energy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Geological Data ◽  
Sediment Types

<p>The implications of climate change are becoming harder to ignore and highlight the need for increased renewable energy production.  Simultaneously, technological developments like larger turbines and floating foundations are improving our ability to harvest offshore wind energy as a renewable resource.  However, despite having an abundant offshore wind energy resource, Ireland is falling behind on its remit to reduce its carbon emissions as part of the European Union’s targets outlined by the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework.  Reducing this inaction is critically important and improvements to Irish renewable energy planning could also be adapted to other locations.  Here we present spatial data rasters created largely from public datasets that have been designed to improve initial planning and opportunities assessments for Irish offshore wind development.  These rasters include information on surficial sediment types, geomorphology, and slope, which are typically not included in preliminary offshore renewable energy assessments despite their importance to turbine foundation designs, scour protection measures, and cable routes.  Furthermore, these rasters allow fundamental predictions on potential benthic habitat changes to be included into site selection models, which could help avoid economically and/or environmentally costly development decisions.  We examine potential uses for these rasters within a multi-criteria decision analysis and discuss the implications of incorporating such geological data during early investigations. </p>

scholarly journals Exploring the Grid Value of Offshore Wind Energy in Oregon

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4435
Author(s):  
Travis C. Douville ◽  
Dhruv Bhatnagar
Keyword(s):  
Wind Energy ◽  
Cost Model ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Resources ◽  
Energy Potential ◽  
Resource Complementarity ◽  
Wind Energy Potential

The significant offshore wind energy potential of Oregon faces several challenges, including a power grid which was not developed for the purpose of transmitting energy from the ocean. The grid impacts of the energy resource are considered through the lenses of (i) resource complementarity with Variable Renewable Energy resources; (ii) correlations with load profiles from the four balancing authorities with territory in Oregon; and (iii) spatial value to regional and coastal grids as represented through a production cost model of the Western Interconnection. The capacity implications of the interactions between offshore wind and the historical east-to-west power flows of the region are discussed. The existing system is shown to accommodate more than two gigawatts of offshore wind interconnections with minimal curtailment. Through three gigawatts of interconnection, transmission flows indicate a reduction of coastal and statewide energy imports as well as minimal statewide energy exports.

Climate change impacts on the future offshore wind energy resource in China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Costoya ◽  
M. deCastro ◽  
D. Carvalho ◽  
Z. Feng ◽  
M. Gómez-Gesteira
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Energy ◽  
The Future

scholarly journals Offshore Wind Energy Resource Assessment across the Territory of Oman: A Spatial-Temporal Data Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2862
Author(s):  
Amer Al-Hinai ◽  
Yassine Charabi ◽  
Seyed H. Aghay Kaboli
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Wind Data ◽  
Offshore Wind Energy ◽  
Offshore Wind Turbines ◽  
Wind Potential

Despite the long shoreline of Oman, the wind energy industry is still confined to onshore due to the lack of knowledge about offshore wind potential. A spatial-temporal wind data analysis is performed in this research to find the locations in Oman’s territorial seas with the highest potential for offshore wind energy. Thus, wind data are statistically analyzed for assessing wind characteristics. Statistical analysis of wind data include the wind power density, and Weibull scale and shape factors. In addition, there is an estimation of the possible energy production and capacity factor by three commercial offshore wind turbines suitable for 80 up to a 110 m hub height. The findings show that offshore wind turbines can produce at least 1.34 times more energy than land-based and nearshore wind turbines. Additionally, offshore wind turbines generate more power in the Omani peak electricity demand during the summer. Thus, offshore wind turbines have great advantages over land-based wind turbines in Oman. Overall, this work provides guidance on the deployment and production of offshore wind energy in Oman. A thorough study using bankable wind data along with various logistical considerations would still be required to turn offshore wind potential into real wind farms in Oman.

scholarly journals The Techno-Economic Potential of Offshore Wind Energy with Optimized Future Turbine Designs in Europe

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dilara Gulcin Caglayan ◽  
Severin Ryberg ◽  
Heidi Heinrichs ◽  
Jochen Linßen ◽  
Detlef Stolten ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Economic Potential ◽  
Offshore Wind Energy ◽  
The Future ◽  
Turbine Design

Renewable energy sources will play a central role in the sustainable energy systems of the future. Scenario analyses of such hypothesized energy systems require sound knowledge of the techno-economic potential of renewable energy technologies. Although there have been various studies concerning the potential of offshore wind energy, higher spatial resolution, as well as the future design concepts of offshore wind turbines, has not yet been addressed in sufficient detail. Here, we aim to overcome this gap by applying a high spatial resolution to the three main aspects of offshore wind potential analysis, namely ocean suitability, the simulation of wind turbines and cost estimation. A set of constraints is determined that reveal the available areas for turbine placement across Europe’s maritime boundaries. Then, turbine designs specific to each location are selected by identifying turbines with the cheapest levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), restricted to capacities, hub heights and rotor diameters of between 3-20 MW, 80-200 m and 80-280 m, respectively. Ocean eligibility and turbine design are then combined to distribute turbines across the available areas. Finally, LCOE trends are calculated from the individual turbine costs, as well as the corresponding capacity factor obtained by hourly simulation with wind speeds from 1980 to 2017. The results of cost-optimal turbine design reveal that the overall potential for offshore wind energy across Europe will constitute nearly 8.6 TW and 40.0 PWh at roughly 7 €ct kWh-1 average LCOE by 2050. Averaged design parameters at national level are provided in an appendix.

scholarly journals Offshore wind energy – South Africa’s untapped resource

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-42
Author(s):  
Gordon Rae ◽  
Gareth Erfort
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
South African ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Energy ◽  
Multi Criteria Evaluation

In the context of the Anthropocene, the decoupling of carbon emissions from electricity generation is critical. South Africa has an ageing coal power fleet, which will gradually be decommissioned over the next 30 years. This creates substantial opportunity for a just transition towards a future energy mix with a high renewable energy penetration. Offshore wind technology is a clean electricity generation alternative that presents great power security and decarbonisation opportunity for South Africa. This study estimated the offshore wind energy resource available within South Africa’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), using a geographic information system methodology. The available resource was estimated under four developmental scenarios. This study revealed that South Africa has an annual offshore wind energy production potential of 44.52 TWh at ocean depths of less than 50 m (Scenario 1) and 2 387.08 TWh at depths less than 1 000 m (Scenario 2). Furthermore, a GIS-based multi-criteria evaluation was conducted to determine the most suitable locations for offshore wind farm development within the South African EEZ. The following suitable offshore wind development regions were identified: Richards Bay, KwaDukuza, Durban, and Struis Bay. Based on South Africa’s annual electricity consumption of 297.8 TWh in 2018, OWE could theoretically supply approximately 15% and 800% of South Africa’s annual electricity demand with offshore wind development Scenario 1 and 2 respectively.

scholarly journals A SWOT Analysis for Offshore Wind Energy Assessment Using Remote-Sensing Potential

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (18) ◽  
pp. 6398
Author(s):  
Meysam Majidi Nezhad ◽  
Riyaaz Uddien Shaik ◽  
Azim Heydari ◽  
Armin Razmjoo ◽  
Niyazi Arslan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Measuring Instruments ◽  
Offshore Wind Energy

The elaboration of a methodology for accurately assessing the potentialities of blue renewable energy sources is a key challenge among the current energy sustainability strategies all over the world. Consequentially, many researchers are currently working to improve the accuracy of marine renewable assessment methods. Nowadays, remote sensing (RSs) satellites are used to observe the environment in many fields and applications. These could also be used to identify regions of interest for future energy converter installations and to accurately identify areas with interesting potentials. Therefore, researchers can dramatically reduce the possibility of significant error. In this paper, a comprehensive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis is elaborated to assess RS satellite potentialities for offshore wind (OW) estimation. Sicily and Sardinia—the two biggest Italian islands with the highest potential for offshore wind energy generation—were selected as pilot areas. Since there is a lack of measuring instruments, such as cup anemometers and buoys in these areas (mainly due to their high economic costs), an accurate analysis was carried out to assess the marine energy potential from offshore wind. Since there are only limited options for further expanding the measurement over large areas, the use of satellites makes it easier to overcome this limitation. Undoubtedly, with the advent of new technologies for measuring renewable energy sources (RESs), there could be a significant energy transition in this area that requires a proper orientation of plans to examine the factors influencing these new technologies that can negatively affect most of the available potential. Satellite technology for identifying suitable areas of wind power plants could be a powerful tool that is constantly increasing in its applications but requires good planning to apply it in various projects. Proper planning is only possible with a better understanding of satellite capabilities and different methods for measuring available wind resources. To this end, a better understanding in interdisciplinary fields with the exchange of updated information between different sectors of development, such as universities and companies, will be most effective. In this context, by reviewing the available satellite technologies, the ability of this tool to measure the marine renewable energies (MREs) sector in large and small areas is considered. Secondly, an attempt is made to identify the strengths and weaknesses of using these types of tools and techniques that can help in various projects. Lastly, specific scenarios related to the application of such systems in existing and new developments are reviewed and discussed.

scholarly journals Offshore Wind Energy Resource Atlas of Asturias (N Spain)

Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (23) ◽  
pp. 1416
Author(s):  
Mario López ◽  
Noel Rodríguez-Fuertes ◽  
Rodrigo Carballo
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Numerical Model ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Power Curve ◽  
Offshore Wind Energy ◽  
The North ◽  
North Of Spain ◽  
First Time

This work assesses for the first time the offshore wind energy resource in Asturias, a region in the North of Spain. Numerical model and observational databases are used to characterize the gross wind energy resource at different points throughout the area of study. The production of several wind turbines is then forecasted on the basis of each technology power curve and the wind speed distributions. The results are mapped for a better interpretation and discussion.

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