The Carbon Trust have announced a research project which is designed to help cut the cost of offshore wind power by increasing the energy yields from Round 3 wind farms that are located up to 290km from the UK coastline. The wake effects measurement project will help the wind industry to improve its prediction accuracy thereby helping to reduce costs and optimise wind farm layouts.
The project is part of the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator, an industry collaboration with nine UK wind farm developers aimed at identifying and commercialising innovations that can act to reduce costs within the sector. Special wakes monitoring equipment has been installed on the Rødsand 2 windfarm in Denmark which will measure wakes passing through the wind farm for the next 6 months. The data will then be used to improve specialist software enabling developers to improve prediction of how wind will flow offshore. This will enable the design of more efficient designs and layouts, increasing energy yield and improving the economics of offshore wind projects.
“Bringing down the cost of offshore wind is an absolute priority for the industry” said Phil de Villiers, Head of Offshore Wind at the Carbon Trust. “We believe that industry collaboration on key innovation projects that offer scope for dramatic cost reduction is the best way to go. The new wakes effects measurement campaign is very exciting as it will address the shortage of data that has constrained the development of wake effects models for offshore wind. It offers potential to increase energy yields from offshore wind farms and also offer financiers greater certainty on the economics of the projects. We are confident that the data we collect will have a dramatic impact on the future of offshore wind energy; for the better.”
The project has also a critical part to play in the attempt to open up debt financing for Round 3 projects in the UK. So far no UK offshore wind farm has been constructed with debt finance, partly because of the uncertainties around predicting energy outputs from offshore wind farms. By offering greater certainty on energy yields, the wake effects measurement project will help to de-risk projects and help them to obtain debt financing.
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