European action plan benefiting offshore
The ambitious national plans for developing the wind farms in the North Sea are received positively by the Danish wind power industry, but for such a development to be optimal the North Sea countries should coordinate their national plans in a total European action plan giving the regional electricity system and the wind power industry a chance of meeting the challenges of the planned projects.
That was the central conclusion from the conference Copenhagen Offshore Wind held in October 2005, and this subject will be discussed at the follow-up conference in Berlin in 2007 – not least because of the January 2007 energy and climate package from the EU-Commission stating ambitious targets for the development of sustainable energy.
“Furthermore, the Berlin conference is planned to result in four or five proposals for creating synergy between the wind power and the oil industry via joint development projects,” explains senior consultant Jacob Lau Holst, working with offshore-related subjects in the Danish branch organisation, Vindmølleindustrien.
Lower electricity prices
The wind power industry has had two specific targets for its strategic business development: the price of electricity should be reduced via more productive wind turbines, and customers should represent more markets for global sales not to be influenced too much when governmental funding of the wind turbines are changed in one or more markets.
Both targets have been reached, and the latest development of the market has even meant that indu-stry via higher prices have got better opportunities for ensuring their quality all the way from sub-contractor to installation.
“This maintenance of quality is most important to the development offshore,” underlines Lau Holst:
“It is still significantly more expensive to develop wind power offshore than onshore as the foundations are much more expensive offshore. Furthermore, setting up the turbines is much more complicated. But when we consider the total economy of an offshore wind farm – and that is what the investors go for – the actual operational costs play a relatively larger part, too.
That is why a strategy for optimising the total economy in future offshore projects should aim at both developing efficient foundation projects and reliable components for the offshore turbines in order to sustain the salty environment and aggressive waves. In such areas we may learn from the oil industry having gained useful experience from their operations in the North Sea for more than 30 years”
“Furthermore, the Berlin
conference is planned to
result in four or five
proposals for creating
synergy between the wind
power and the oil industry
via joint development projects,”
explains senior consultant
Jacob Lau Holst, working with
offshore-related subjects in the
Danish branch organisation,
Vindmølleindustrien.
Controlled development of the market
The energy and climate package of the European Commission and the ambitious British and German development plans could easily lead to an over-heating of the market to the disadvantage of the indu-stry. That is why the wind power industry regards the Danish development concept as attractive, as new wind farms are proposed based on a licence in sites where the authorities have checked in advance that the electricity network can be developed to handle production from the wind farms.
Under the present market conditions where an increasing global demand has made it advantageous for the wind power industry to stake on the onshore market a coordinated effort from the authori-ties is required to provide a reasonable development for the offshore market.
“Both economically and technologically it is most profitable for the industry to stake on the onshore market, as the turbines here are fully competitive with conventional energy production. But if the promising offshore potential is to be exploited there is a need for clear signals telling that there will be an interesting volume in this market.
If the potential actors can see that something will happen in the near future, they will turn up. Harbours will be made more suitable for dispatch of components, logistics will be improved, and more specialized vessels for erection of offshore turrets will be built. National demonstration projects coordinated regionally will be an excellent tool to start a healthy development of this market.
The European Commission is rightly focusing on developing an efficient market for electricity in Europe as an equal and non-discriminating access to the network and a fair price for the environmental advantages of this kind of electricity will offer all producers equal opportunities. A division between responsibility for systems and for production could make the responsibility of the authorities more precise in order to develop the electricity systems and make the production from the wind farms more useful.
It is only natural to demand more from a 200-300 MW offshore wind farm – which is actually to be considered an offshore power plant – than from a single wind turbine onshore. So the industry should cooperate with the appropriate authorities to develop offshore concepts meeting the demands of a modern, flexible electri-city system characterized by de-central and most variable production.”
In this concept the wind power industry sees interesting prospects in developing the most price sensitive spot market for electricity in order to give the consumers an opportunity for getting more benefit from the price reducing effect of the wind turbines.
The responsibility of the authorities
The efforts of the wind power industry to develop Denmark as a global Offshore Wind Power Hub is not only aiming at exploiting its strong position in the offshore market, it is also a question of promoting the actions of the Danish authori-ties and the structure of the network to the benefit of the energy companies, the developers and the producers.
“The Danish tradition for public service, which the Danish Energy Authority has developed with its “one-stop office approach”, was rightly praised at Copenhagen Offshore Wind in 2005. It makes it easier for project developers to handle the various considerations to be taken when developing wind power in a vulnerable environment. Danish research in environmental loads will be most significant.”
In addition to the “one-stop office approach” concept Deputy Director Anne Højer Simonsen from the DEA points out that experience from evaluations of the offshore development plans of the oil companies have been useful when considering plans for offshore wind farms. The wind power industry can utilize this experience for its promotion of offshore wind farms to find the most suitable areas for setting up new wind farms.
