Assessment and Analysis of Offshore Wind Energy Potential

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radian Belu

Wind energy usage is increasing at fast rates due to significant technical advances, energy supply security and environmental concerns. Research is focusing among others areas on the development of reliable and accurate wind energy assessment methods. Offshore wind energy resources are usually larger than at geographically nearby onshore sites, which may offset in part higher installation, operation, and maintenance costs. Successful offshore wind energy development relies on accurate analysis and assessment of wind energy resource potential. Offshore wind assessment challenges are related to the wind turbine size, offshore installation challenges, lack of adequate and long-term wind and meteorological measurements, etc. Wind, a highly intermittent phenomenon has large spatiotemporal variability, being subject to sub-hourly, hourly, diurnal, seasonal, yearly, and climate variations in addition to their dependence on the geography and environment. Wind regime characteristics are critical to all aspect of a wind energy project, e.g. potential site identification, economic viability, equipment design, operation, management, or wind farm impacts on the electric grid. For a reliable wind energy assessment, measurements at rotor heights are required at least for one year. If such measurements are not available needs to be substituted by alternative approaches, e.g. measure-correlate-predict or numerical methods. Chapter objectives are to provide the reader with comprehensive reviews of the wind energy assessment and analysis methods.

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 2635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Ulazia ◽  
Ander Nafarrate ◽  
Gabriel Ibarra-Berastegi ◽  
Jon Sáenz ◽  
Sheila Carreno-Madinabeitia

Hywind-Scotland is a wind farm in Scotland that for many reasons is at the leading edge of technology and is located at a paradigmatic study area for offshore wind energy assessment. The objective of this paper is to compute the Capacity Factor ( C F ) changes and instantaneous power generation changes due to seasonal and hourly fluctuations in air density. For that reason, the novel ERA5 reanalysis is used as a source of temperature, pressure, and wind speed data. Seasonal results for winter show that C F values increase by 3% due to low temperatures and denser air, with economical profit consequences of tens of thousands (US$). Hourly results show variations of 7% in air density and of 26% in power generation via FAST simulations, emphasizing the need to include air density in short-term wind energy studying.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4435
Author(s):  
Travis C. Douville ◽  
Dhruv Bhatnagar

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-42
Author(s):  
Gordon Rae ◽  
Gareth Erfort

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.


Vestnik MEI ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 35-46
Author(s):  
Galina V. Deryugina ◽  
◽  
Evgeniy V. Ignatiev ◽  
Myat Tun Htet ◽  
Mikhail G. Tyagunov ◽  
...  

Nowadays, one of pressing problems in Myanmar is shortage of electric energy, which makes approximately 10% of all electric energy consumed in the country. This shortage can be partially decreased by constructing large-capacity grid-connected wind farms. The last four years have seen a general decline in the growth rates of commissioned wind farm capacities around the world; nonetheless, certain wind energy industry sectors, primarily offshore wind energy, demonstrate a steady growth. In recent years, the market of Asian countries, in particular, that of China, is one of the most rapidly growing offshore wind energy markets. An updated theoretical wind energy potential of Myanmar is given. It is shown that the highest wind intensity is observed on the western and southern coasts of Myanmar, which make approximately 8% of the country’s total area. The theoretical wind energy potential of the Andaman Sea water area near the west coast of Myanmar at heights equal to 10 and 100 m has been evaluated for the first time; eight promising sites for constructing offshore wind farms have been determined, and a model for analyzing efficient wind farms has been selected. A procedure has been developed, using which the optimal composition of a complex of several wind farms with the total capacity equal to 47.6 MW has been found. These wind farms are located at significant distances from each other in Andaman Sea areas, which are characterized by an essentially non-uniform distribution in time of wind intensities in them. Owing to this feature, it is possible to increase the energy generation by 8% and achieve a higher wind farm capacity utilization factor.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 111-124
Author(s):  
FARAH ELLYZA HASHIM ◽  
◽  
OSCAR PEYRE ◽  
SARAH JOHNSON LAPOK ◽  
OMAR YAAKOB ◽  
...  

Realistic view on the potential of offshore wind farm development in Malaysia is necessary and requires accurate and wide coverage of wind speed data. Long term global datasets of satellite altimetry of wind speed provide a potentially valuable resource to identify the potential of offshore wind energy in Malaysia. This paper presents three different assessments of offshore wind energy resources in Malaysia using satellite altimetry. The wind speed data obtained from Radar Altimeter Database System (RADS) were validated and identified to be in agreement with previous studies. The resources were then assessed at three different levels; theoretical, technical and practical offshore wind energy potential. The technical resource potential was assessed by taking into consideration the available offshore wind turbine technology. Conflicting uses and environmental constraints that define the practical offshore wind energy resources are plotted on the maps to present a practicality of offshore wind farm development in Malaysian sea. The study concluded that, in theoretical view, Malaysia does have potential of offshore wind energy resource especially in Borneo Water with average annual wind energy density above 500 kWh/m2. However, the development of offshore wind farm in Malaysia will be difficult taking into consideration the technical and practical challenge.


Author(s):  
X. Costoya ◽  
M. deCastro ◽  
D. Carvalho ◽  
Z. Feng ◽  
M. Gómez-Gesteira

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2862
Author(s):  
Amer Al-Hinai ◽  
Yassine Charabi ◽  
Seyed H. Aghay Kaboli

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.


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