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OFFSHOREWIND ENERGYPowering the UK since 2000

An insight into the design, engineering, construction and history of a 21st century power source

Owners’ Workshop ManualRUK16-21-6

UPDATED AND

UPD

ATED

AND REVISED • UPDATED AND REVISED

3 RDEDITION

Authors: Maf Smith, Ben Backwell and Nick Medic

Editor: Maf Smith

Design and Layout: Mike Linsey and Anna Wherrett

Illustrations: John Lawson, Mike Linsey and Ian Moores

Published by RenewableUK, supportedby MHI Vestas Offshore Wind

All photographs, courtesy of MHI Vestas Offshore WindEdda Mistral image courtesy of Ørsted

Contents

1. Introduction

10. Section 1 | What is offshore wind power?

18. Section 2 | The history of offshore wind

18. Section 3 | How offshore wind farms are developed

28. Section 4 | How offshore wind farms are constructed

36. Section 5 | Mega machines—offshore wind technology

42. Section 6 | Offshore Wind Turbine Manufacturing: MHI

Vestas Offshore Wind

46. Section 7 | Offshore Wind Goes Global

50. Section 8 | How many jobs does offshore wind create?

54. Section 9 | Where next for offshore wind?

Contents

In the waters around the British Isles, our future electricity system is being built. Around our coastline, an energy revolution is taking place with thousands of wind turbines, some the height of landmark skyscrapers such as London’s Gherkin, quietly turning and powering the UK. From ports around our coastline, each day crews of maintenance teams set out to tend to this growing fleet of power stations, keeping the turbines turning in all weathers.

The UK is a world leader in offshore wind with 40% of the world’s operating offshore wind power, with ambitious plans to treble the amount of offshore wind by 2030. But the UK is not alone; globally more and more countries are embracing offshore wind.

Offshore wind has been operating in the UK for 20 years now, and we have real life experience from the growing offshore wind fleet. The results are impressive: it turns out that every 1,000 Megawatts (or 1 Gigawatt) of installed offshore power capacity contributes roughly 1% of the UK’s annual electricity supply. Given the power capacity of modern offshore ‘super turbines’, this contribution can be achieved by installing 100 turbines machines, such as the MHI Vestas Offshore Wind V174-9.5MW turbine.

Such tremendous amounts of energy can be extracted from a relatively small surface of the ocean. In fact, all of the wind farms installed up to date in the UK’s part of North and Irish Seas, currently supplying almost 10% of the nation’s electricity, are taking up just over 0.1% of the UK sea bed. This represents a new way to generate power, with minimal impact on land resources.

The UK is a world leader in offshore wind with 40% of the world’s operating offshore wind power

Introduction

Introduction 1

And the United Kingdom needs power. Coal is on the way out as a source of power, and the need to decarbonise our power system means that, according to the Committee on Climate Change we must quadruple the amount of power we get from renewable sources.

Since 2010, the UK has been putting a wind turbine in the water on average every 2 days. At present, close to 2,400 turbines have already been installed or are in construction in UK waters. This rate of growth is impressive. But with a commitment to see 30GW, or 30% of our power needs coming from offshore wind by 2030, the pace of development needs to increase further.

9.1%8%

17.1%

Annual Electricity Generationin the UK 2018

Offshore wind 8%

Onshore wind 9.1%

Other renewables 17.1%

9.1%8%

17.1%

Annual Electricity Generationin the UK 2018

Offshore wind 8%

Onshore wind 9.1%

Other renewables 17.1%

Offshore Wind Energy2

Offshore wind is now a low-cost technology, with planned schemes expected to generate at or belowthe cost of sources such as gas and coal. The growthof this new technology also means huge supply chain opportunities and jobs growth here and in markets around the globe such as the USA, India, China and Taiwan.

This Haynes Guide, prepared by RenewableUK with the support of MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, will tell you all you need to know about this exciting new industry.

Since 2010 the UKhas been puttinga wind turbine inthe water onaverage every40 hours.

Introduction 3

The rise of wind power

Wind power has been one of the fastest growing power sources in the world over the last two decades. Cumulative installations have grown from a tiny 7.6 gigawatts (GW) in 1997 to 591GW in 2019, representingan average growth rate of over 22% per year. This means that from a few thousand wind turbines globally 20 years ago, there are now over 340,000 in operation.

The advantages of wind power are that it is relatively quick to install, it is scalable—a wind farm can be made up of a couple of turbines or up to hundreds of turbines—and it is clean and carbon free. This latter factor has made wind attractive to governments trying to meet carbon targets and stop climate change, large corporations with their own sustainability targets, and also the general public.

In addition, the economics of wind farms are predictable. After construction, wind farms do not depend on the supply of fuels whose prices are volatile, and average wind speeds at wind farm sites can be predicted on an annual basis with a high degree of reliability.

Until recently, wind power was relatively expensive compared to more traditional forms of power generation. It largely relied on government support schemes of different types to be competitive, althoughit is also worth pointing out that fossil fuels have traditionally enjoyed less obvious forms of support such as tax breaks.

However, wind power costs have fallen steadily, particularly in recent years, as wind turbines become cheaper and more efficient. These cost and efficiency improvements are driven by technological innovations such as bigger rotor blades and more sophisticated electronic control systems. Finance for wind farms is

The wind sectorhas grown froma few thousandwind turbines20 years ago to300,000 today.

What is offshore windpower?

Section 1.


Rostor hub

Work platform

Transition piece

Jacket

Array cable

Jacket pin

Nacelle

Monopile

Transition piece

Service lift

What is offshore wind power? 5

also becoming cheaper and more available. Added together, this means onshore wind is now the lowest cost source of power in the majority of markets around the world. In the same way that onshore costs are falling, so have offshore costs. Over the last 20 years we have scaled up offshore wind, increasing turbine size, innovating and learning by doing. The simple fact that windpower is low cost and cuts carbon out of our power system. That means it, along with solar power, is the power source of choice in large parts of the world, from Europe to the US, Brazil and China.

Why go offshore?

Onshore wind is relatively quick and easy to install, but why take wind offshore? The answer is both economical and political. In any case, there are a number of factors to consider.

Winds offshore are both stronger and more constant than onshore, so operators can reap significantly higher amounts of energy than they would from most onshore sites. On the other hand, as we shall see, the challenges of constructing offshore are significant.

In addition, the space available to build wind farms offshore is enormous and not subject to the same planning or infrastructure constraints as potential onshore sites, and technological advances in turbine size and construction techniques mean that offshore wind farms can be built at a massive scale. They are power stations in our oceans.

The Aberdeen Bay Offshore Wind Farm has the world’s most powerful turbines in operation today at 8.8MW. The site has 9 V164MW-8.4MW turbines and 2 V164-8.8MW turbines and generat-ed first power on 1 July 2018. All 11 turbines were installed and operating by end July and it was officially opened by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP on 7 September 2018.


The resource prize

The seas of Northern Europe offer the best offshore wind resources in the world, such that a relatively small area in the North Sea could create enough energy to supply all of Europe’s electricity. The North See is also mostly shallow so easy to build on. Large parts of it were actually land, until they were submerged at the end of the last Ice Age around 8,500 years ago.

The UK, which has become the world leader in the sector, is fortunate to have one of the very best wind resources of any country in the world, with a total potential estimated at 120GW using only waters with depths of under 50 metres. This capacity is sufficient to supply all of the UK’s electricity—and still leave some for export!

With its long coastlines, the UK has the fifth largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world, giving companies huge potential to develop wind farms in its waters.

It is also close to a number of other countries actively building out offshore wind such as Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and France. This has created a Europe wide market for firms to work in and gives the UK the benefit of a wider network of industrial capacity and skills.

The engineering challenge

However, harvesting this resource constitutes probably one of our biggest modern engineering challenges. Installing turbines in deep, rough waters entails the manufacture of stable towers for them to sit on. Then there is the installation of these towers, which can be over 100m tall, in constantly changing, hostile weather.


Once installed, the turbines must work reliably over long periods of time, withstanding the strong winds, storms and corrosion from salt water. In addition, the wind farms need to be connected to electricity grids onshore, which are often a great distance away. This requires the building of offshore substations and the laying of long power cables on the seabed.

These challenges have inverted the traditional economics of developing a wind farm. In onshore projects, the wind turbine itself makes up around 65–70% of the cost of the project, while in a typical offshore project this may be only 40–55% because of the steep costs of building foundations, installing the turbines and connecting the projects to the shore.

Because the costs of installing foundations and other infrastructure are relatively inelastic, and projects do not face the same height restrictions as onshore, it makes sense to try to increase the size of individual wind turbines. This has led to a steady increase in size of the machines. The first two turbines installed in the UK were 2MW machines. The largest machines being installed today are in UK waters and are 8.8MW, and already manufacturers are looking at how to go even further to 10MW+ scale machines.

A crew transfer vessel pushes alongside a V164-8.0 turbine at the 659MW Walney Extension wind farm. This is the world’s second biggest wind farm, but its size is dwarfed by current largest, the Hornsea One Wind Farm, which is almost double the size at 1218MW.


The first projects

The first offshore wind farm was built in 1990, 2.5km off the coast of Denmark, at Vindeby. It consisted of specially adapted onshore 450kW turbines built by Bonus and designed by wind turbine pioneer Henrik Stiesdal.

In the following years growth was slow, with only a small number of projects being developed close to shore in Denmark and the Netherlands. It was not until 2000 that the first large-scale project was built at Middelgrunden in Denmark, which had twenty 2MW Bonus turbines. The project was developed by Danish utility DONG, now better known as Ørsted.

The UK gets involved

In the same year, the first offshore wind farm in the UK was built, off the coast of north-east England, close to the city of Newcastle. Blyth Offshore consisted of two 2MW Vestas turbines and was developed by a consortium including utility E.ON and oil giant Shell.

At the same time as the Blyth scheme was being developed and built, industry and government were looking at how to lease areas of seabed to allow larger schemes to be built. A couple of years earlier, in 1998, the British Wind Energy Association (now RenewableUK) had held discussions with government and The Crown Estate, which owns the seabed around the UK, to create a set of guidelines allowing offshore wind development to take place. The published guidelines permitted companies to develop wind farms of an area of up to 10km2 and 30 turbines. This provided the opportunity for companies to gain valuable development experience.

A 1GW offshorewind farm provideselectricity for nearly a million homesper annum.

The history of offshore wind

Section 2.


1991: the first offshore wind farm was built near Vindeby, off the coast of Denmark. It comprised of 11turbines made by Bonus Energy with a hub height and rotor diameter of 35 metres.

2001: the first UK offshore wind farm was installed near Blyth. The turbine chosen for the job was the Vestas V66-2.0MW, with a hub height of 62 metres and a rotor diameter of 66 metres.

2011: the turbines such as the Siemens SWT-3.6MW had increased the hub height to 83 metres and the rotor diameter to 120 metres - as long as a football field.

Offshore wind turbines have increased in size over the years, in line with advancements in turbine technology and construction.

2019: The current generation of offshore wind turbines such as the V164-8.8MW have 100m hub heights. Industry is developing motor diameters of close to 200m. They are also 20 times more powerful than the Bonus Energy machines installed 28 years earlier by Vindeby.

The history of offshore wind 11

In what became known as the UK’s ‘Round 1’ seabed licensing round exercise, The Crown Estate approved 17 projects in April 2001. The first Round 1 project, North Hoyle, was completed in 2003, followed by a further 10 projects, with a total of 1.1GW. But this was just the start. Round 2 took place in 2003, with 15 projects (7.2GW) given leases by The Crown Estate.

Round 2 led to a rapid growth in the UK’s offshore capacity and to the UK quickly becoming the world leader. Two Round 2 projects—Gunfleet Sands and Thanet—were completed in 2010, with several others following over the next couple of years, including the completion of the giant London Array project in early 2013. As we shall see, however, these would soon be dwarfed by a much more ambitious licensing round.

This growth means that the UK went from two offshore turbines in 2002, to around 50 in 2004 and close to 100 by the end of 2005. 20 years since those first two turbines, the UK has around 2,400 offshore turbines either in construction or in operation. In fact, since 2010, an offshore wind turbine went up in UK waters on average every 41 hours.

This UK growth has been mirrored elsewhere in Europe. In 2001, the 50.5MW installed offshore in Europe represented just 1% of the total wind capacity. By 2018, however, offshore wind represented 10.8% of a much bigger total of 18.5GW. By the end of 2018 23.1GW had been installed offshore globally.


Wind farms are increasingly further and further away from shore, so it can be hard to appreciate the scale of achievement. But they are visible from space. This NASA satellite image shows London Array, a Round 2 Project in the outer Thames Estuary. It consists of 177 turbines at 480 tonnes each over an area of 100km2. Site water depth is up to 25m and the distance between turbines is 650 – 1,500m.


The Round 3 bonanza

In June 2008, The Crown Estate launched Round 3. The prize: nine offshore wind development zones with a potential wind power capacity of 33GW. To illustrate, if developed, 33GW could provide a full third of the UK’s electricity demand.

Round 3 also called for bids for a number of sites in Scottish territorial waters.

The bidding round created a fervour of interest among project developers and manufacturers, attracting 40 applications, with multiple bids for each zone on offer. The successful bidders included a number of major power companies such as Iberdrola, SSE, RWE, E.ON, and Centrica, and Norway’s Statoil (now Equinor), as well as independent developers such as Mainstream Renewable Power.

The Round 3 announcements created interest from around the world in the UK’s offshore scene. A number of big industrial companies, from Europe, Asia and the US, announced decisions to start manufacturing the huge new turbines that would be needed in this round.

The construction of already licensed projects and extensions in UK waters continued steadily, while in the background the work of planning the first Round 3 projects was taking place. On the manufacturing side, Germany’s Siemens obtained planning permission for its Green Port Hull facility in May 2012, and started work on a turbine factory in March 2014. Now in operation this site, run by joint venture Siemens-Gamesa employs 1,000 people.

A few months later, Vestas announced a joint venture with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, under the MHI Vestas Offshore Wind brand. The partnership announced that itwould build the blades for its newest class of turbine on the Isle of Wight.

In Round 3, 33GWof sites wasannounced. Toillustrate themagnitude, 33GW of offshore wind power could provide one thirdof the UK’selectricity demand on an annual basis.


Taken together, the two announcements from the industry’s main manufacturers meant that the UK would once again have its own wind turbine industry. All in all, the stage had been set for the next round of growth in offshore wind.

Leading countries in Global offshore wind

0

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Share of global installed capacity

Leading countries in global offshore wind 2018


The UK Sector Deal

In March 2019 the UK Government and offshore wind industry published the Sector Deal for offshore wind. Two years in the making, the sector deal confirms the critical role of offshore wind in the UK economy, and marks out offshore wind as a priority industry for the UK. In the last 20 years, offshore wind has grown from small beginnings to become a UK industrial powerhouse. The Sector Deal sets out how to grow the industry as offshore wind becomes the backbone of our future clean energy system.

As the world’s largest offshore wind market, that commitment makes sense. It means that the UK has the most stable policy framework and certainty out to 2030 using up to £557m for future Contract for Difference power auctions, to secure at least 30GW of offshore wind, making the UK a great market for building out long term.

With this industry is able to work together to ensure that it delivers additional, tangible benefits to the UK in terms of training, investment, jobs and increased UK content. A big focus of the deal is to boost the productivity and competitiveness of the UK supply chain helping UK companies win work at home and abroad. This ambition will be realised through an industry investment into an Offshore Wind Growth Partnership of up to £1 million, supporting better, high-paying jobs right across the UK.

The bidding forRound 3 Zonescreated a fervourof interest amongproject developersand manufacturers,attracting 40applications, withmultiple bids foreach zone on offer.


7. Development - Development site area has been awarded for the developer by The Crown Estate

6. In Planning - Project has applied for planning consent andis being evaluated

5. CfD Secured - Projects that are deemed eligible to bid for Contract for Difference (CfD) are those that have recieved planning consent and that have a grid connection date agreed with the National Grid

4. CID Eligible- Projects that have received a Contract for Difference (CID) but have yet to begin construction

3. Pre-Construction - Projects that have received a Contract for Difference (CID) but have yet to begin construction

2. Under Construction - Project has received planning commision but has not yet entered into construction

1. Operational -The entire project is operational and generating power

With 8.7GW in operation and 2.8GW under construction, the UK is a global offshore wind superpower. As this map shows however, a lot more sites are still to be developed.


The process of planning, building and operating wind farms is carried out by companies known as developers. These include:

• Utilities companies, which often produce and distribute power from a number of sources, often in a number of different countries, such as Iberdrola/Scottish Power or Ørsted.

• Independent developers, who took to secure consent and relevant licenses and then sell on to a buyer who will build and own the end project.

• Others such as oil and gas companies that want to diversity into wind power, such as Equinor.

The role of The Crown Estate & Crown Estate Scotland

In the UK, development starts with an application to the Crown. Since 2017 the UK seabed has been managed by two separate organisations - The Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland (here we will call them collectively ‘the Crown’). These bodies manages the land and marine assets in England and Wales and Scotland respectively which was formally owned by the sovereign, but now controlled and administered by government. These assets include the seabed out to

How offshore wind farms are developed

Section 3.

Scoping

called 'scoping’.

Development

to developers. Development and consenting canbegin.

Installation The planning consents are in place. It is time to install the project and start generating electricity

Operation and maintenance For 20 years or more theproject will generate electricity to the grid.

Decommissioning/RepoweringThe wind farm is either decommissioned or repowered (with new turbines) - the cycle begins again.

The life cycle of an offshore wind farm: from site scoping to decommissioning


The Crown controls the rights to generate electricity from wind, waves and the tides on the UK continental shelf, under the Energy Act of 2004

12 nautical miles and most of the coastline around the UK. It also controls the rights to generate electricity from wind, waves and the tides on the UK continental shelf, under the Energy Act of 2004.

The Crown has taken a proactive role in the development of offshore wind power. This has included organising and promoting successive rounds for leasing of development areas. But it is also active in a number of other spheres in order to ensure that the potential of the areas is realised. These include carrying out large-scale studies; supporting the development of a UK offshore wind supply chain; and enabling the sharing of data and best practices.

In the UK the first stage of development of an offshore wind farm is an exclusivity agreement for a particular development zone signed between the developer and the Crown. This is followed by an Agreement for Lease which gives the developer exclusivity over an area of seabed – in other words, seabed rights. This entails an enforceable option to require the Crown to grant a lease, subject to the developer obtaining the necessary consents. It also grants to the developer temporary rights to carry out activities in the area, such as surveying or wind measurement work, and the right to add an export cable route at the appropriate time.

Scoping

called 'scoping’.

Development

to developers. Development and consenting canbegin.

Installation The planning consents are in place. It is time to install the project and start generating electricity

Operation and maintenance For 20 years or more theproject will generate electricity to the grid.

Decommissioning/RepoweringThe wind farm is either decommissioned or repowered (with new turbines) - the cycle begins again.

The life cycle of an offshore wind farm: from site scoping to decommissioning

How offshore wind farms are developed 19

The consent process

Once they have an Agreement for Lease, developers need to apply for planning permission. In England and Wales, applications for projects of over 100MW of generation capacity need to apply to the Planning Inspectorate—smaller projects need to be submitted to the Marine Management Organisation or Natural Resources Wales respectively. In Scotland, applications for all marine projects need to be submitted to Marine Scotland.

The application needs to include details of a developer’s project design—for example, the exact location of the wind farms within the zone, the number and size of wind turbines to be used, the proposed location of any onshore substations that will have to be built, an Environmental Impact Assessment, and evidence that detailed consultation on the project has taken place with stakeholders such as local communities or fishermen.

Operational headquarters: the project's control centre

1

8

2

3

4

5

56

7

5Port and dockside facilities

Jack up barge: a key vessel for installing foundations and turbines

An array of offshore wind turbines

Crew transfer, maintenance and monitoring vessels

Construction/cable laying vessel

Offshore electricity substation: collects electricity from the wind turbines and sends it onshore

Onshore electricity substation: interface between the wind farm and the nation's electricity grid.

The main elements of an offshore wind farm


The planning application is a voluminous document running to 10,000 pages or more, and put together by expert teams looking at every aspect of building and operating the wind farms over the lifetime of the project. Developers need to show that environmental and social concerns around the impact of the individual projects have been identified during the consultation and addressed in preparation for the consent application.

Following the submission of this evidence, the relevant planning authority then carries out its own consultation on the application. It does so by weighing up the benefits and potential adverse effects of a project, before deciding whether it can be built. If approved, the planning authority then issues a planning consent, in England and Wales called a “Development Consent Order”.

The length of this process has varied historically. It most cases it takes around five years, but can sometimes last longer, if there are particularly complex environmental or social issues to consider.

Operational headquarters: the project's control centre

1

8

2

3

4

5

56

7

5Port and dockside facilities

Jack up barge: a key vessel for installing foundations and turbines

An array of offshore wind turbines

Crew transfer, maintenance and monitoring vessels

Construction/cable laying vessel

Offshore electricity substation: collects electricity from the wind turbines and sends it onshore

Onshore electricity substation: interface between the wind farm and the nation's electricity grid.


Site selection and design

Before applying for consent, a developer will create a detailed design for the wind farm it intends to build. Often the developer will plan to build a number of separate projects (wind farms) over a number of years, within the zone that it has rights to.

In order for the site plan to be created, a number of factors need to be taken into consideration. The first is wind speed. The developer will put up anemometry masts (known as “met masts”) to measure wind speed at various points in the site and/ or use floating LIDAR technology, which uses lasers to measure wind speed. The data generated is used to decide the optimum locations for the wind farm and individual turbines.

The second important factor is water depth. Water depths can vary significantly within a zone, and this will impact the kind of foundations—and therefore the cost—of projects, and even determine whether fixed or floating foundations should be used.

The third factor is seabed conditions. Developers will carry out detailed surveys on the seabed, as factors such as the quality of the soil or the presence of large amounts of rocks and other obstacles can affect the complexity—and therefore the cost—of installing foundations. In some cases, such as the giant Dogger Bank Round 3 zone, planning may even need to take into account the need to protect archeological remains on the seabed.

The fourth factor is environmental concerns, such as the possible impact of a wind farm project on wildlife. An example is the giant London Array wind farm in the Thames Estuary, which saw its design modified to limit the impact on red-throated diver birds. The project consortium eventually built a 630MW first phase, while the second phase was postponed and subsequently cancelled due to possible effects on that species.


Route to Market

Traditionally Governments have used support schemes to support the development of renewable power sources. In the UK we used a programme called the Renewables Obligation which topped up the price developers could secure for selling power in the market. However, as the amount of renewables grew, these costs started to stack up. It was also recognised that Government trying to set prices as risky; Government risked setting the price too low and stopping development, or setting it too high and overpaying.

In the UK Government went through a programme called Electricity Market Reform, and out of this put in place an auction process called “Contract for Difference”. Put simply, Government seeks bids from potential projects, selects the low costs bids and then signs a contract to pay the difference between the market price and the bid price.

Funding support for offshore wind: from the RO to the CfD

The first support programme for UK offshore wind farms was the Renewables Obligation framework. This framework, introduced in 2002 placed an obligation on retail electricity suppliers to source a gradually increasing percentage of its electricity from renewable sources. In turn, renewable electricity producers receive a fixed premium for each unit of electricity produced over 20 years, in addition to the price of the unit itself.

The Renewables Obligation has now been replaced in the UK with Contracts for Difference. This support scheme offers a 15 year fixed price to renewable energy producers. The ‘difference’ means that the state is liable for the top up between the wholesale value of the unit of electricity and the contracted value. If wholesale value is higher than the contractual value, the producer pays back the difference.


The beauty of the auction process is it creates competition between schemes, and since auctions were introduced we have seen prices fall rapidly. For offshore wind there has been some serendipity here, with offshore wind maturing and scaling up at the same time as auctions came in. That adds up to a massive win for energy consumers. In the first power auctions held in 2015 offshore wind prices came in at £114 per MW. In 2017 prices halved to £57.50 and experts expect that the 2019 auctions (live when this Manual went to print) will see prices fall even lower. Offshore wind is now cheaper than alternatives such as nuclear, power or gas. Despite this low cost the UK Government still plans to run auctions periodically into the next decade. Why is that?

The first reason is that the competition process in the auctions is seen as driving prices down very effectively. The second reason is that it helps take out some of the risk of development. Offshore wind farms take a long time to go from the drawing board to generation. Once generating they have lower operating costs than traditional forms of generation, as they have no fuel costs, only the costs of operation and maintenance. This means that offshore wind is capital intensive, that is the investment to make the schemes happen is all front-loaded.

The development and construction of offshore wind farms costs many hundreds of millions of pounds, and schemes are funded by the development companies who either use their own balance sheet and assets or borrow money to fund construction. Once constructed companies then sell on all or part of the wind farm to recycle capital, that is bring in money to fund the development of future schemes.


The high cost of schemes means it can be expensive to borrow money. High costs of capital can push up a project cost, which ultimately makes electricity more expensive for consumers. But auctions, backed by Government help reassure investors and reduce risk, meaning the cost of capital stays low.

2 0 3 0 £ 5 3MWh

Year Cost2 0 1 5 £ 1 1 4 / M W h

2 0 1 7 £ 5 7 / M W h

? ?2 0 3 0 £ / M W h

Delivering cost reduction:

The price of offshore wind projects has come down rapidly in the last few years, particularly since auctions began in 2015. A 2019 auction is underway, and costs are expected to fall further. The UK Government has set strike prices at a maximum of £56/MWh for 2023/24 delivery and £53/MWh for 2024/25 delivery. This means to bid into an auction companies need to hit this or a lower price.



350m

300m

250m

200m

150m

100m

50m

02MW 2012 6MW 2014 8-9MW 2018 12MW 2022-23

Big Ben,London - 93m

The Gherkin,London - 180m

One Canada SquareCanary Wharf

London - 236mDeansgate Square- South TowerManchester

- 200m

2014

2015

2017

2019

£140

£114.39

£57.50

less than £54

How the costs have come downGuaranteed Prices

How offshore wind farms are constructed

Section 4.

The firstconstructionchallenge isdeciding on thetype of foundationthat will supportthe wind turbine.

Building the foundations

The first challenge in constructing a wind farm is deciding what kind of foundations the project’s turbines will be supported on. There are three main types of foundations, which have been deployed in commercial projects.

The majority of wind farms constructed up to now have been built using steel monopiles—large tubes typically weighing up to around 2,000 tonnes - that are driven into the seabed. Depending on the length, the diameter of the monopile can go up to 10 metres.

A transition piece (TP) is then put on top of the monopile, onto which the turbine’s tower and other equipment, such access ladders, can be bolted. The TP is fixed in place with high-strength cement called grout, a process that allows the installer to make sure the piece is exactly vertical and at the right height above the sea.

Monopiles can be deployed in water depths of up to 25–30m. They are generally reliable, and are easy and cheap to fabricate and install. They are not without their problems, however. The monopiles require noisy piling, which can lead to installation restrictions. And they need protection from moving rocks and other material on the seabed, known as scour protection.

An alternative to monopoles are steel “jacket” foundations. These are typically four-sided A-shaped structures, made of low-diameter steel tubes, resting on piles and typically weighing 500–600 tonnes.


Helihoist Support Frame

Gearbox

Generator

Inside a V164 nacelleOn the top of the 100m tower sits the 390 tonne nacelle. Inside are critical components such as the gearbox, generator and control systems. These parts convert the turning of the blades into electricity.

How offshore wind farms are constructed 29

Jacket foundations are extremely strong and have been used successfully for decades in the offshore oil and gas industry. However, they are time-consuming to build, with their multiple welded joints, and each individual wind farm requires custom-made jackets to match its seabed conditions and water depth.

During transportation jackets cannot be stacked and therefore use up more space on transport vessels, adding to installation costs. All of this means that jackets are considerably more expensive than monopiles. Much industry discussion has revolved around the need to industrialise and reduce costs of jacket production, as wind farms move into deeper waters.


Other types of foundations which do not require piling are also being tried, such as gravity based structures and suction buckets. Hybrids such as mono buckets which integrate piling and suction bucket technology are now also being deployed. Gravity based solutions can be made of concrete which is a cheaper materials than steel. They are then towed and sunk into position.

These new techniques are becoming more common, and are often used when a site has more challenging seabed conditions. In 2017 EdF’s Blyth Offshore wind farm successfully demonstrated the use of gravity base foundations; these concrete foundations were built by contractor BAM in a Newcastle dry dock before being floated out and sunk into position on the site. 8MW MHI Vestas Offshore Wind turbines were then installed on top of the foundations.

The three main types offoundations used in theconstruction of offshorewind farms. From left toright: gravity base, monopile, and jacket.


Essential to the installation of offshore wind turbines, a jack up barge can be over 100m long and 50m wide. Its accommodation facilities house up to 100 people. It is self-raising at a speed of 0.4 metres per minute.

Crane

Main deckStaff quarters

Jack up legs

Helipad


Installing the turbines

Once the foundation and transition piece is in place, the turbines are installed. This involves the use of very large installation vessels, known as jack-up vessels.

These self-propelled vessels manoeuvre themselves into the right position using dynamic positioning systems. They then use legs to lift themselves out of the water, so that giant cranes can perform the lifts on a stable base, without any influence from waves or swell.

The turbine towers are then lifted into place, followed by the nacelle (which houses the turbine’s gearbox, if it has one, generator and other equipment) and finally the three blades, each of which, in modern turbines, can be over 80m long.

The difficulty and speed of installing wind turbines are still heavily dependent on weather conditions, with high winds, for example, complicating the installation of rotor blades. However, there have been steady improvements over the last decade, and many wind projects now manage to install one turbine per day on average throughout the construction period.

Taking the electricity onshore

A major engineering and cost issue when building offshore wind farms is how to transport the electricity onshore and feed it into existing power networks.

The individual turbines in a wind farm need to be connected to an offshore substation by inter-array cables, in order to centralise the electricity generated and convert it to the right frequency. This substation then needs to connect to the shore with one or more giant export cables, which weigh thousands of tonnes, making them the heaviest items in an entire wind farm.

Many windprojects nowmanage to installone turbine perday throughoutthe constructionperiod.

Essential to the installation of offshore wind turbines, a jack up barge can be over 100m long and 50m wide. Its accommodation facilities house up to 100 people. It is self-raising at a speed of 0.4 metres per minute.

Crane

Main deckStaff quarters

Jack up legs

Helipad


The cables are normally laid by a special type of vessel that both ploughs a trench on the seabed and lays the cables in it. The process has not proved to be without its problems over the years. A common hitch has been cable “kinking”, which can severely restrict power flow and requires expensive remedial action. In addition, offshore wind farms often require new substations to be built onshore, in order to feed the power into the national grid and this entails its own planning complications and costs.

As wind farms move further away from coastlines in order to harvest the best winds, operators are turning to High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC). HVDC technology is higher cost, it is necessary because of the power losses associated with using alternating current (AC) technology, which makes transporting power over distances of over 50 to 70km impractical. The use of HVDC was pioneered in Germany, where a series of huge HVDC converter stations was built to centralise and export power from projects in the North Sea. In the UK, the next generation of projects being built as part of Round 3 is also turning to HVDC.

The need to build offshore converter stations/substations is a major engineering challenge. The largest substations are the size of a football pitch, at 90 x 60m, and the weight of the Eiffel Tower, at 10,000–12,000 tonnes!

This has led to a rethinking of substation design in recent times. Engineering firm Siemens, for example, is pushing the concept of the Offshore Transmission Module (OTM), a stripped down, lightweight unit that can be directly attached to a wind turbine. Siemens says that the new concept could be 40% cheaper than installing a traditional substation.

A blade is moved into position during construction of the Burbo Bank Extension. The lift takes place over 100m above sea level and must be perfectly executed so that each of the bolts attaching the blade to the rotor can be slid into position. Below can be seen the jack up vessel performing the lift, complete with other blades ready for installation.


Floating offshore wind

In the longer term, floating turbines are a particularly promising development. Floating structures could be used to deploy wind turbines in very deep waters, and could eventually become as economical as fixed structures. The technology could open large swathes of the world’s oceans, currently too deep for conventional foundations, to energy development.

The first full-size floating turbine was built in Norway in 2009, while the second was deployed off Portugal in 2011. Equinor’s 30MW Hywind Scotland wind farm has now been operating off the north east of Scotland for two years and a second UK site, the Kincardine Offshore Wind Farm is under construction (the first turbine was installed in 2018, with a further six turbines to be added. When complete this floating offshore wind farm will be 50MW and the biggest in the world.

Floating wind technology allows wind turbines to be towed out to site from harbour, limiting the need for specialised installation vessels. They could be deployed so far from shore as to dispel any lingering aesthetic objections, and decongest busy coastal waters. In terms of engineering it is a challenging technology, but one with an enormous potential.

In areas like Japan or the West coast of America, floating technology offers a route to develop offshore wind in deep waters. The challenge for floating offshore wind is scaling up so that costs can come down through learning by doing and by introducing volume manufacture. There are a number of platform concepts in development, and in the early years of development we will likely see a rationalization of platform types as this part of the offshore wind industry commercialises.


The first offshore wind turbines like those installed in Blyth were converted versions of onshore turbines. As time went on, however, we have seen a shift to larger machines designed for offshore, and even reorganisation of the wind market itself, with some manufacturers and developers now solely focused on offshore wind.

First in offshore, size matters. It makes sense to try to maximise the size of the individual turbines in a wind farm, as this reduces the number or volume of installations, foundations, cables etc. needed. The 450KW turbines installed at Vindeby, the first offshore wind farm in the world, had a total or blade tip height of 52 metres. The 8.8MW MHI Vestas Offshore Wind turbines installed in Aberdeen in 2018 have a tip height of 191 metres.

Second, the move offshore ups pressure on making sure turbines are reliable. Offshore wind turbines operate in a harsh environment, buffeted by high wind speeds and facing the threat of corrosion from salt water. Turbines are being installed further and further from land too, so

Mega machines—offshore wind technology

Section 5.

The scale of the latest turbines is sometimes hard to compre-hend.One of the new generation of offshore ‘super turbines’, the MHI Vestas Offshore Wind V174-9.5MW has 85m blades, the equivalent of nine double decker London buses. It has a swept area twice the size of the London Eye and the full capacity the blade tips will reach speeds up to 200 miles per hour.


The blade tip of one of today’s super turbine can reach speeds of up to 200mph.

access for maintenance can be a challenge. Mistakes made in the design and production process lead to cost or downtime later and this needs to be avoided. Turbines are now “weatherized” to provide extra protection for internal and external components.

Gearboxes vs direct drive

One cause of mechanical failure historically has been the gearbox, which is used to increase rotational speed from a low-speed rotor to the electrical generator. The gearbox is one of the most complicated parts of the turbine, and the one with most mechanical parts.

This has led some companies to turn to so-called “direct drive” designs. A direct drive turbine has no gearbox. Instead a single large rotor with permanent magnets spins at the same speed as the turbine blades and transmits power directly to the generator. Historically, the downsides to this approach have been an increase in weight and cost because of the large rotor size, the need for a bigger generator, the cost and risk of scarcity associated with permanent magnets, and more complex power electronics.

However, designers have taken steps to address these issues. For example, Siemens Games has switched from using geared designs to direct drive in its new models, such as the 8MW and 10MW turbines. It has introduced a series of innovations that have allowed it to dramatically reduce the weight of the entire turbine nacelle to a level less than geared models.

In recent years, a compromise solution has emerged: a simplified “mid-speed” gearbox that significantly reduces the amount of mechanical parts in the turbine by dispensing with the fastest speed stage in a typical gearbox. The idea of this concept, used in successful turbine models produced by companies such as MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, is a reliable and robust turbine, but at a lower cost than direct drive.

Mega machines—offshore wind technology 37

Unconventional turbine designs

One of the simplest alternative ways to reduce the cost of wind power would be to build two-bladed, rather than three-bladed, machines. Proponents argue that this would save around 20% of construction and installation costs. The idea is not new, having been widely tried onshore in the 1980s. One reason they were unsuccessful onshore is that having two blades means that they have to spin faster, causing more noise. However, this is not a problem offshore. In recent years, several new companies have revisited the idea and now have prototypes in place. The most common approach has been to spin the rotor 180 degrees round, to face downwind, rather than upwind.

Increasingly seen as key to the next phase of offshore

turbines could release the energy potential the world's deep waters. Port side assembly is also an advantage as it saves time and money.

The Aerogenerator: This design addresses one of the biggest challenges of the 3 bladed vertical wind turbine - installation and maintenance at height on open seas. The generator housing is at waterlevel facilitating ease of access.

The two bladed design: Seen as a particularly promising development, the two bladed wind turbine could reduceoverall costs of offshore wind. Due to its lighter weight it could also have a highermegawatt power ratio usingcurrent towers and foundations.

Innovative and unconventional turbine designs


One of China’s biggest turbine manufacturers, Ming Yang, has tested a 6MW turbine designed by Germany’s Aerodyn at the Rudong testing area and in Europe Dutch wind technology developer 2-B Energy is looking to test its own 2 bladed design. However, until a big two-bladed model has been shown to operate successfully over time at an efficiency level close to three-bladed turbines, the jury is still very much out. Some innovators think that we may see a return to vertical access machines, or even multi-blade rotors. However, as industry has managed to deliver low cost power using what is now the industry standard design of a three bladed machine, there will need to be a compelling reason in either cost reduction or reliability to cause such a shift in design.

Increasingly seen as key to the next phase of offshore

turbines could release the energy potential the world's deep waters. Port side assembly is also an advantage as it saves time and money.

The Aerogenerator: This design addresses one of the biggest challenges of the 3 bladed vertical wind turbine - installation and maintenance at height on open seas. The generator housing is at waterlevel facilitating ease of access.

The two bladed design: Seen as a particularly promising development, the two bladed wind turbine could reduceoverall costs of offshore wind. Due to its lighter weight it could also have a highermegawatt power ratio usingcurrent towers and foundations.


The turbine manufacturers

A number of manufacturers have been involved in the offshore wind turbine scene over the last two decades. As the market expanded we saw a number of onshore companies move into offshore wind. However, in the last few years we have seen significant rationalisation, with mergers between onshore wind companies now the norm as the large wind original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) try to secure market size and the capital needed to invest in and develop the next generation of larger machines.

In Europe the market is now dominated by Siemens-Gamesa and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, both partnerships of existing companies. In both companies we have seen a rapid response to the challenge of scaling up turbines, and both now offer machines up to 10MW, and have experience of supplying, installing and operating machines of 8MW+.

Seeking to challenge these companies is GE, which is now developing its 12MW Halide turbine using LM blades. This bigger machine is currently undergoing testing and development, with GE hoping to win orders for this larger turbine for use in the early 2020s.

These companies are international in scope, with manufacturing facilities now operating in Europe, and plans to expand into the USA and Taiwan as those markets develop. Also looking to expand globally are a number of Chinese OEMs such as Goldwind and Ming Yang. Chinese companies are now active in European markets, either as investors or co-owners of development companies.


The MHI Vesta Offshore Windfacility on the Isle of Wight employs over 300 people manufacturing 80m+ blades.


MHI Vestas Offshore Wind is an offshore wind turbine original equipment manufacturer (OEM) with a significant presence in the UK, including a growing manufacturing capability. Their UK manufacturing hub is located on the Isle of Wight and has been in operation since May 2015. Over 300 people work on site in blade manufacture. The majority of employees at the plant are blade technicians with the rest being team leaders, finance officers, HR officers and engineers.

The site has been in use for blade manufacture and research since the 1990s so has a long history of blade making. The current facility consists of two halls 170m long and 50m wide, one for testing and verification, and the other for blade production. Today the plant is manufacturing blades being installed on projects across Europe, including Burbo Bank Extension and Walney Extension – the world’s largest wind farm.

Due to demand and the rapid scale up in turbine size, the site is being expanded, and a new blade mould arrived in November 2018. The investment in the plant is expected to create a further 380 jobs at the plant and an estimated 720 jobs in the local area.

Across the Solent, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind has also established the Fawley advanced blade painting facility, breaking ground in 2017 and commissioning in Summer 2018. MHI Vestas Offshore Wind and its sub-contractor employ nearly 50 people at Fawley, 50 now captures the whole blade value chain in the UK. Use of Fawley is a striking example of the clean energy transition in the UK, given the site’s previous use as an oil-fired power station.

The Isle of Wight factory has also benefited the wider supply chain, another hallmark of offshore wind manufacturing. The hydraulic pitch systems in the blades, for example, are manufactured at Bosch Rex-roth in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, which in turn has

A UK manufacturingcase study: MHI VestasOffshore Wind

Section 6.


V164-8.0MW turbine towers and nacelles awaiting load out at Belfast Harbour for construction of the Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm.

A UK manufacturing case study: MVOW 43

Offshore Wind Service Operations Vessel

With offshore wind farms moving further offshore, companies are rethinking how to build and maintain the turbines. One recent innovation is the Service Operations Vessel or SOV. These vessels can stay at sea for up to four weeks, and provide accommodation and equipment for crews involved in the construction or maintenance of wind farms. At the Hornsea One wind farm, Ørsted is using the Edda Passat and Edda Mistral vessels to keep crew stationed close to these sites. Both vessels have motion compensated gangways which allow technicians to walk to work safely in much rougher seas than traditional boat transfer.

HelideckMotion compensated gangway

Bridge

Accommodation quartersAutonomous workboatwith passenger transfercapabilities


helped the company grow a custom production line at the Wakefield facility. There are many other local sup-pliers too, like Greenham Trading in Southampton who offer blade kitting services for the facility. These com-ponents and services, designed and manufactured by hundreds of people across the UK, highlight the wider benefits to the UK supply chain and the breadth of UK expertise now involved in the delivery of a next generation of super turbine.

The next generation of turbines: the V174-9.5MW

The need to reduce costs and ensure that turbines can work in different markets and wind conditions across the globe creates significant pressures on turbine manufacturers. We have seen a rapid scale up of turbines, with investment in larger components to meet the demand of project developers for more powerful machines. The challenge for them is to build on the learning and knowledge gained from the roll out of previous machines, while continually innovating and improving.

The next generation of turbine from MHI Vestas Offshore Wind is its V174-9.5MW. This is built on its existing 9MW platform but with larger 85m blades. That pushes the rotor diameter to 174 metres, hence the new name. The swept area from these new blades comes in at a staggering 23,779m2, which is twice the area of the London Eye, and from base to tip, each turbine stands at 197m.

The engineering know-how required to build turbines able to operate in challenging conditions over many, many years is one our industry has risen to. Offshore wind has proven its ability to deliver, with projects now routinely built on time and at lower costs. Part of the reason for this success is the role of the OEMs and their capability of delivering turbines the industry can rely on.

HelideckMotion compensated gangway

Bridge

Accommodation quartersAutonomous workboatwith passenger transfercapabilities

A UK manufacturing case study: MVOW 45

The offshore wind industry has gone from strength to strength, but until recently has been a largely European affair. This situation has changed dramatically over the last few years, with the sector now transforming itself into a truly global industry.

As we will see, mainland China’s offshore industry is relatively well-established, but is now set for a new, accelerated period of growth. But it has also been joined by the fast-growing Taiwanese market, an active US market and a host of other countries following close behind.

China has become the world’s largest single market in terms of annual installations in 2018, overtaking the UK, according to forecasts from GWEC. On a regional level, Asia overtakes Europe in the early 2020s and will account for just under half of total installations going forward.

Let’s look at a few of these markets:

China

China has been building offshore wind farms for over a decade now and reached 4.4 GW of installed capacity at the end of 2018.

However, the country is now set for a period of accelerated growth, with Government looking to build offshore developments relatively close to the main load centres near to the coast in the south eastern and eastern provinces.

China is looking at how to achieve the low prices for offshore wind now being seen around the world that it is seeing in other parts of the world, and is pushing its industry towards subsidy-free price levels by introducing a new province-based auction system. This will inevitably

Offshore Wind Goes GlobalSection 7.


push Chinese projects further offshore in search of optimum wind speeds, as well as accelerate the introduction of larger turbine sizes.

Taiwan

Taiwan has made the most aggressive moves to develop its offshore wind sector of any non-Europan market. The country has so far held two licensing rounds, which will see it construct around 5.5GW of capacity by 2025, with auctions delivering low prices for the Government - evidence of how a clear and ambitious program can lead to a very rapid decrease in price.

Taiwan’s achievement has been remarkable, as its regulatory and market set up has been able to attract an array of the world’s most active and well-resourced developers; including Ørsted, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, WPD, Macquarie/Green Investment Group and Northland Power International, with several others actively seeking partners.

The process has not been without its challenges, of course. Sparked by the success of achieving lower prices in the June 2018 auction and as well as domestic political pressure, Taiwan’s government proposed a drastic 12.7% reduction in feed-in-tariffs at the end of 2018. Following a period of negotiation, a compromise agreement was reached on 30 January 2019 which saw a more modest 5.7% reduction in the FiT.

This compromise agreement led to companies moving forward with financial close, including Ørsted with its 900MW Changhua projects, with a reported investment of some $4.8bn.

Offshore Wind Goes Global 47

Now that Taiwan is moving into a full delivery phase, the industry’s focus has moved on to project delivery and local supply chain development. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s authorities continue to aim for more, with a third licensing round on the horizon.

USA

The USA has been developing its offshore wind sector since the mid-1990s, but, after some early setbacks, the market is starting to accelerate. The 30MW Block Island wind farm has been fully operational since 2016, and a number of US States are now backing offshore wind to deliver low cost power, supply chain growth and decarbonisation. There have been a series of state-level bidding rounds which have attracted US and international companies into the market. For example, the state of Massachusetts, has recently updated their target to 3.2GW by 2030 by tendering additional 1.6W of offshore wind starting in 2022. According to GWEC figures, installed offshore wind capacity is set to reach 10GW by 2030.

In order to maintain momentum to reach these amounts, the US will have to create a continued pipeline of auctioning rounds, ensuring a regular flow of projects. And meanwhile, the industry is ramping up investments in supply chain and infrastructure in order to successfully build the current wave of projects.

There are a large number of other markets with huge offshore wind potential. Markets like Vietnam, Korea, India and Japan now have good policy and regulatory regimes in place and look ready for significant growth, while behind them countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and many more are investigating offshore wind potential.


Forecast Operational Capacity by 2025 (MW)

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

Offshore Wind Goes Global 49

The building of large-scale offshore wind farms has unleashed significant jobs growth around the UK. There are currently 7,200 people directly employed in the offshore wind industry. The UK Offshore Wind Sector Deal sets out a commitment to increase this to 27,000 people by 2030, and to take action to improve gender diversity from the current low of 16% to 40%.

The industry measures UK content of its wind farms, and currently 48% of work is going to UK firms. The Sector Deal commits the industry to grow this to 60%, which will mean a focus on construction and manufacture.

How many jobs doesoffshore wind create?

Section 8.

Jon Beresford, UK Offshore Operations Performance Manager at EON Climate & Renewables. Operation management involves ensuring that the day-to-day operations run smoothly and that the turbines are working as well as possible. This involves managing teams of engineers, meeting suppliers, and tackling problems as they arise.


The UK has seen investment in blade manufacturing on the Isle of Wight and Hull, as well as in construction and operation and maintenance bases around the country. There are now clusters of companies based around east of England, the Humber, NE England and Scotland winning work in offshore wind. Turbine towers are now made in the West coast of Scotland at CS Wind’s Campbeltown factory, and jackets, monopiles and transition pieces are being built in fabrication yards down the east coast which have traditionally worked in oil and gas. Cables for offshore wind are now being built in the NE of England and Wales and specialist supply chain firms continue to grow or move to the UK looking to win work. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Grimsby, an ex-fishing community enjoying a renais-sance thanks to offshore wind.

Some of the UK’s leading offshore wind companies have bases in Grimsby, thanks to the port’s proximity to a large cluster of offshore wind farms in the North Sea. The Ørsted East Coast Hub is located in the Royal Docks in Grimsby. The site was built in 2014 to provide a base for the 270MW Lincs and 210MW Westermost Rough, the 573MW Race Bank,1.2GW Hornsea 1 and the 1.4GW Hornsea 2 wind farms. Ørsted, currently employs 300 people in Grimsby and this is set to increase to 400.

Grimsby’s Royal Dock has also been confirmed as the home for Innogy’s 860MW Triton Knoll wind farm. A new construction and longer-term operations and maintenance base will be constructed across nearly four acres of the port. As a result, the port will support regular, long-term vessel movements, including service operations vessels and crew transfer vessels, during both the construction and operations phases. A total of 170 new jobs are expected to be created.

How many jobs does offshore wind create? 51

Some of the jobs in offshore wind

Offshore wind turbine technician

Usually working for the turbine manufacturer, in charge of maintaining the blades and the components within the nacelle, as well as the electrical systems exporting power from the turbine.

Marine biologist

Ful�ls a key role in designing and developing the wind farm to make sure it is safe for marine and avian species, compiles environmental assessments and monitors long term operational impacts.

Investment analysts

Employed by large investors or working as a consultant, advises on project cost, viability, construction risk, long term returns and ensures the offshore wind farm is a sound investment proposition.

Installation vessel captain

Offshore wind farm construction requires precise co-ordination of large vessels on open seas to a distance of centimetres – this is where an experi-enced captain has a key role to play.

R&D expert

With a background in engineering or applied science, serves at the cutting edge of research into new offshore wind materials, devices, components or technical procedures.


Some of the jobs in offshore wind

Offshore wind turbine technician

Usually working for the turbine manufacturer, in charge of maintaining the blades and the components within the nacelle, as well as the electrical systems exporting power from the turbine.

Marine biologist

Ful�ls a key role in designing and developing the wind farm to make sure it is safe for marine and avian species, compiles environmental assessments and monitors long term operational impacts.

Investment analysts

Employed by large investors or working as a consultant, advises on project cost, viability, construction risk, long term returns and ensures the offshore wind farm is a sound investment proposition.

Installation vessel captain

Offshore wind farm construction requires precise co-ordination of large vessels on open seas to a distance of centimetres – this is where an experi-enced captain has a key role to play.

R&D expert

With a background in engineering or applied science, serves at the cutting edge of research into new offshore wind materials, devices, components or technical procedures.

How many jobs does offshore wind create? 53

Where next for offshore wind?

Section 9.

The year is 2050. Driven by the urgent need to decarbonise the global economy, and by the rapid energy transition, the offshore wind sector has been growing for over four decades. As a low cost, large-scale, renewable power source, offshore wind led the rapid decarbonisation of the power sector in the 2020s. But what’s really interesting, looking back, is how the other strengths of offshore wind helped us drive a wider energy revolution.

Back in 2019, the UK Sector Deal between Government and industry set out a vision of 50GW by 2050. That same year the Committee on Climate Change advised the UK and devolved governments to adopt a net-zero emissions target to meet the UK’s commitments to the international Paris Agreement on climate change. Offshore Wind was identified as the technology that could scale up to become the backbone of a clean, reliable and affordable energy system.

As a response to these targets and the ever-present public pressure to tackle the climate emergency, Government and industry acted to change how we powered our homes and our transportation. Electric bikes and cars are now the norm on our roads, while green hydrogen and other synthetic fuels are now standard for trucks, trains and aircraft. There are no petrol or diesel vehicles left apart from in the garages of vintage car enthusiasts and museums, meaning air quality in towns and cities is better than at any time in our modern history.

We live in homes that are more comfortable and cheaper to run thanks to a government-backed retrofit programme for old buildings, and the introduction of high standards for new homes. New homes have not been hooked up to the gas network since the mid-2020s, and many have their own sources of power and storage on site. New business models, services and


smart technology are helping consumers of all kinds benefit from the flexibility and cost savings new technologies have provided.

And the energy driving all of these changes? Electricity.

In 2050, the vast majority of our power comes from renewable sources: offshore wind, onshore wind and solar. Grid Operators manage our grid with a mix of renewables, storage and other low carbon sources; we’ve developed green hydrogen for back-up power and fuel, built storage of all kinds, and redesigned the market to reward flexible, clean power – made possible by technology innovation in renewables, batteries, and a smarter system.

Floating offshore wind and deep-water innovations have meant that since the 2030s wind farms have been located further offshore, bringing in companies and workers with expertise from the old North Sea oil and gas industry. Drones and self-piloted vessels criss-crossing the sea are an everyday part of keeping our offshore wind fleet operating, while on land many thousands of people work in this new energy system built with the UK’s successful offshore wind industry at its heart.

The first generation of offshore wind farms built in the early part of the 21st century have been repowered with cutting-edge turbines which are a world away from the small machines that made up the first wave of this energy revolution.

Thousands of wind turbines turn in our seas, but they have been built balancing the needs of other sea users, and with care for the environment that goes beyond the contribution offshore wind has made to tackling climate change. Coastal communities and British supply chain companies have flourished with the growth of the industry.

Where Next For Offshore Wind? 55

In 2050 people will marvel that less than a generation ago, our energy needs mainly came from hydrocarbon gas, coal and oil. Whilst some energy incumbents failed to spot this change coming and experienced their own Kodak moment, the smart ones adapted their business or invested in technologies like offshore wind and thrived in the new golden age of renewable energy.

While the energy sector in 2050 will be unrecognisable from today, 2019 is the tipping-point for accelerating decarbonisation and building our future energy system. The rapid changes underway in how we power our economies will disrupt the energy sector profoundly in the coming decades. As with all predictions, the above picture of 2050 will be wrong – most likely by underestimating how much and how quickly change is coming.

Where Next For Offshore Wind?56

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RenewableUK members are building our future energy system, powered by clean electricity. We bring them together to deliver that future faster; a future which isbetter for industry, billpayers and the environment. We support 400 member companies to ensure increasing amounts of renewable electricity are deployed across theUK and access markets to export all over the world. Our members are business leaders, technology innovators and expert thinkers from right across industry.

MHI Vestas Offshore Wind is a joint venture between Vestas Wind Systems A/S 50% and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) 50%. The company’s focus is to design, manufacture, install and service wind turbines for the offshore wind industry. The company aims to create sustainable value through offshore wind power by driving capital and operating savings and increasing the power output of wind turbines. An innovative force in offshore wind since its inception in 2014, the company is guided by its founding principles of collaboration, trust, technology and commitment. For more information, see www.mhivestasoffshore.com or follow @MHIVestas on Twitter.

offshore wind energy - renewableuk€¦ · the first offshore wind farm was built in 1990, 2.5km...

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