offshore wind technology innovation to improve reliability ... · offshore wind technology ....

OFFSHORE WIND

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION TO IMPROVE RELIABILITY AND REDUCE THROUGH-LIFE COSTS

Energy Technologies Institute www.eti.co.uk

2 Energy Technologies Institute Energy Technologies Institute 3

WHY OFFSHORE WIND?

“ OUR FOCUS IS ON DRIVING DOWN THE COSTS OF OFFSHORE WIND THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPROPRIATE INNOVATIVE ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS”

The UK has Europe’s biggest offshore wind resource. This could make a major contribution to meeting the UK’s electricity demand. It is estimated that the UK has over a third of the total European potential offshore wind resource.

In UK waters, the marine environment is harsh. The logistics of installing, running and maintaining machines far from shore to provide an affordable source of electricity creates significant engineering challenges.

Larger, more reliable turbines with a larger swept area (blade size) operating in windier areas with reduced costs are paramount to cost reduction. We have commissioned projects to improve turbine reliability, accelerating the deployment of longer blades to demonstrate the feasibility of floating offshore wind turbines in windier areas.

The technologies needed to exploit these resources competitively require significant development and cost reduction before they can compete with fossil fuel technologies and the lowest cost forms of low carbon generation.

Our focus is on driving down the costs of offshore wind through the development of appropriate innovative engineering solutions.

Our analysis shows the costs of offshore wind can be reduced significantly through the development of engineering solutions. That is why we are investing heavily in the demonstration of technologies such as floating offshore wind platforms, very long blades, condition monitoring systems and test rigs that could significantly lower the lifecycle costs of offshore wind, making it more financially attractive, leading to far higher levels of deployment.

WHAT WE ARE DOING?

» UNDERTAKING TARGETED INVESTMENTS TO ACCELERATE LEVELISED COST OF ELECTRICITY REDUCTION

» SUPPORTING THE DEMONSTRATION OF TECHNOLOGIES AND SYSTEMS TO INFORM DECISION MAKING AND INCREASE INDUSTRY CONFIDENCE

» INVESTING IN ONSHORE TESTING CAPABILITY TO DE-RISK NEW OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY

The ETI invests £15.5 million in new turbine blade design with Blade Dynamics.See page 9 for the full story


» Project to examine the economical and technical feasibility of Tension Leg Platform (TLP) design

» Investigated offshore 5MW wind turbines with hybrid concrete/steel floater and concrete counter weight

» Showed that TLP based solutions could help reduce the costs of offshore wind in the UK

» A feasibility study on the technical and commercial viability of vertical axis turbines

» Investigated 5MW and 10MW designs based on aerogenerator rotor concepts

» The project was delivered by a consortium featuring industry and academia

WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DATE?

The NOVA project delivered a feasibility study which evaluated the technical and commercial viability of a 5MW and 10MW vertical axis turbine, based upon the aerogenerator rotor concept. It also evaluated specific design options for the rotor, drivetrain and foundations.

Project Managed by OTM Consulting Ltd, the consortium also included Wind Power Ltd, the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and the Universities of Cranfield, Sheffield and Strathclyde. Started in January 2009 with an ETI investment of £2.8m and completed in summer 2010 the project provided the ETI with valuable information that has helped shape the next stage of our Offshore Wind programme.

The project showed that the Nova concept was commercially and technically feasible. Our further analysis suggests that horizontal access wind turbines will evolve faster than vertical access wind turbines and provide lower costs of energy in the short to medium term.

NOVA WAS ONE OF THREE INITIAL PROJECTS ALONG WITH HELM WIND AND DEEP WATER LOOKING AT NEW TURBINE DESIGN CONCEPTS. THE FOCUS OF ALL THREE PROJECTS WAS ON ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES THAT COULD HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON OFFSHORE WIND COST OF ENERGY FROM 2020 ONWARDS.

This project was led by Blue H Technologies. The consortium also included BAE Systems, Romax, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Agricultural Science, EDF, PAFA Consulting Engineers and Sea & Land Power and Energy Ltd. It delivered an economic and technical feasibility study for a novel floating TLP 5MW offshore wind turbine having a hybrid concrete/steel floater and a concrete counter weight.

The project started in January 2009 with an ETI investment of £3.3m and completed in the summer of 2010. The project provided us with valuable data on TLP floating foundation design and cost. It helped shape the next stage of our Offshore Wind programme.

Our analysis concludes that the cost of energy from the sites to the South West, North West and North East of the UK could provide highly competitive levelised energy costs.

DEEP WATERNOVA

The Deep Water project started in January 2009 with an ETI investment of £3.3m and completed in the summer of 2010

£3.3m

6 Energy Technologies Institute

» The development of intelligent monitoring for wind turbines

» Sought to improve reliability and the monitoring of turbines

» Sought to increase the availability of turbines by reducing their downtime by up to 20%

» Investigation into concepts and technologies required to deliver significant cost reductions

» Swept areas (blade size) needed to be larger than was usual at the time of the project

» The optimum size of turbine is larger than the current state of the art design

The Condition Monitoring project was led by Moog Insensys and included Romax, SeeByte, the University of Strathclyde, E.ON and EDF. It looked towards developing an intelligent integrated, predictive, condition monitoring package for wind turbines, which improves reliability, increasing availability by reducing downtime by up to 20% and leading to potential savings of £16,000 per turbine.

Launched in September 2009 with £5.4m of ETI funding the system was tested on turbines belonging to EDF in France and E.ON in North Yorkshire. The project completed in summer 2013.

The Helm Wind project carried out an unconstrained investigation into the concepts and technologies required to deliver significant cost of energy reductions for offshore wind. This included rotor diameter, geometry and speed, number of blades, upwind and downwind orientations, drivetrain options and support structures. Led by E.ON, the consortium also included BP, Rolls-Royce and the University of Strathclyde.

The project started in January 2009 with an ETI investment of £2.5m. The project finished in the autumn of 2010. It identified that sufficient improvements could be made through technology innovation to deliver energy costs that were comparable with 2010 onshore wind costs one of ETI’s objectives for the offshore wind programme.

This would require innovation in rotor aerodynamics and diameter, drivetrain technologies and electrical systems. The consortium also identified that the optimum turbine size for offshore wind; is significantly larger than the current state of the art design.

CONDITION MONITORINGHELM WIND

Condition Monitoring was launched in September 2009 with £5.4m of ETI funding

£5.4m

WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DATE? CONTINUED »

Energy Technologies Institute 7


» Project to develop a technology platform to build blades in excess of 100 metres

» Use of carbon fibre in manufacture enables longer blades with increased swept area to be built

» Manufactured through smaller component pieces rather than full-length mouldings

The ETI commissioned Isle of Wight SME Blade Dynamics to develop a technology platform to build blades in excess of 100m for use on the next generation of large offshore wind turbines with a capacity of 6MW.

New design techniques were used incorporating carbon fibre along with other composite materials. This will see blades weighing up to 40% less and it allows cost savings in the overall blade, turbine and tower structure to be made, when the system is designed as a matched unit. This will help reduce the cost of energy.

The manufacturing process will also see the blades constructed through the assembly of smaller, more accurate and easily manufactured component pieces as opposed to the traditional large and expensive full-length mouldings.

In October 2015, Blade Dynamics was acquired by GE. GE are now taking forward the funding and testing of the blades manufactured by Blade Dynamics at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult in Blyth.

The acquisition by one of the world’s largest companies and the resources and market reach they bring with them should enable the technology to progress quickly and reach a wide global market.

VERY LONG BLADES


Isle of Wight SME Blade Dynamics have been commissioned to develop a technology platform to build blades in excess of 100m

£15.5m

» Indoor turbine test rig based at National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in Northumberland

» Designed to allow the whole offshore wind drivetrain to be tested onshore before deployment offshore

Two consortia, GE Energy Power Conversion / MTS and Horiba, were commissioned to deliver competing technical designs for an indoor test rig capable of testing a complete wind turbine drive train and nacelle in 2010.

In 2011 GE Energy Power Conversion and MTS were subsequently commissioned to design, develop and commission the test rig, which is sited at Narec in Blyth, Northumberland. We have invested over £25m in the project, in partnership with Innovate UK who funded the Narec building and supportive infrastructure.

The test rig has been designed to allow the whole turbine nacelle to be tested, in a purpose-built, onshore test facility before being exposed to the challenging offshore conditions. This will help reduce the technical and commercial risks of mass production and deployment.

OFFSHORE WIND TEST RIG

In 2011 GE Power Conversion and MTS were commissioned to design, develop and commission the test rig, which is sited at Narec in Blyth, Northumberland

£25m



» A FEED study into the design of an offshore wind floating platform system demonstrator

» Tension Leg Platform design in partnership with Alstom’s 150-6MW Haliade turbine

Floating turbine technology is of strategic importance to any future UK offshore wind strategy.

This project draws upon earlier ETI studies. These showed that floating foundations could be very attractive, by allowing the UK to access higher wind sites that are reasonably close to shore. Our analysis suggests that floating offshore wind has the medium to long term potential to deliver attractive energy costs.

The Glosten Associates, a US-based navel architecture and marine engineering firm have designed a tension leg platform (TLP) floating system demonstrator through a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) Study.

This has shown that UK offshore wind energy costs could fall to below £85/MWh by the late 2020s, with further reductions possible as the technology matures. The floating platform is designed to provide high capacity factors in wind speeds exceeding 10 metres per second in water between 50 and 1200 metres deep. The TLP technology is suitable for water depths from as low as 55 metres (much lower than conventional TLP developed from oil and gas experience) up to several hundred metres. Floating foundations will enable the UK (and other countries) to develop a wider range of offshore wind sites that have good wind resource that are relatively close enough to shore, rather than being limited to sites suitable for foundations fixed to the seabed.

FLOATING PLATFORM SYSTEM




ETI FINDINGS KEY FACTS AND FIGURES

HIGHER WIND SITESGaining access to higher wind sites, reasonably close to shore, will help to significantly reduce offshore wind energy costs. In the UK these areas are off the South West and North East of England and off the North West and North East coasts of Scotland. Accessing these areas will require the development of cost effective foundations for water depths of 20 to 100m.

REDUCING ENERGY COSTSImportant technology innovation areas for reducing offshore wind energy costs are; accessing higher wind speeds, bigger more reliable turbines with larger swept area and reduced installation costs.

VERTICAL AXIS TURBINESAlthough technically feasible, VAWT do not yet offer technical or commercial advantages over similar sized HAWT. In the longer term very large VAWT may play a role, especially on floating foundations.

DEEPWATER ENERGYIn order to harness energy in deepwater locations, tension leg platforms are a technically feasible and economically attractive foundation/platform design.

1/3 TOTAL ENERGY COSTSOffshore Wind turbines operating expenditure can account for up to 1/3. Actual amount depends on location and will be lower for close to shore sites.

FEWER, LARGER UNITSOperating and Capital costs will be reduced by building fewer, larger units rather than many smaller ones.

These figures are taken from the Low Carbon Innovation Coordination Group (LCICG) – Technology Innovation Needs Assessment on Offshore Wind

LGICG members together expect to invest in excess of £100m of funding into Offshore Wind over the next 3-4 years

£100m

Innovation opportunities can lead to a saving of £45bn in deployment costs over 2010-2050

Innovation in Offshore Wind technology could create an estimated saving to the energy system of £18-89bn to 2050

£45bn £18 - 89bn

£16 - 18bnGlobal market turnover by 2050 could grow to £16bn-18bn

Innovation opportunities over the next 10 years can bring down the deployment costs of Offshore Wind by up to 25%

25%Innovation in Offshore Wind technology could help create UK based business opportunities that could contribute £7-35bn

£7 - 35bn


The Energy Technologies Institute is a partnership between global energy and engineering companies and the UK Government.

Its role is to act as a conduit between academia, industry and government to accelerate the development of low carbon technologies.

It brings together engineering projects that develop affordable, secure and sustainable technologies to help the UK address its long-term emissions reduction targets as well as delivering nearer term benefits.

It makes targeted investments in a portfolio of nine technology programmes across heat, power, transport and the infrastructure that links them.

ETI Members

ETI Programme Associate

ABOUT THE ETIEnergy Technologies Institute 15

Stuart Bradley Strategy Manager – Offshore Renewables 01509 20 20 65 [email protected]

Andrew Scott Programme Manager – Offshore Renewables 01509 20 20 64 [email protected]

Stewart Swatton Project Manager – Offshore Renewables 01509 20 20 56 [email protected]

Paul Trinick Project Manager – Offshore Renewables01509 20 20 62 [email protected]

PROJECT TEAM

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www.eti.co.uk

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offshore wind technology innovation to improve reliability ... · offshore wind technology ....

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