The Evolution of the Offshore Wind Power Technology in Britain

The Evolution of the Offshore Wind Power Technology in Britain
The Evolution of the Offshore Wind Power Technology in Britain
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The Evolution of the Offshore Wind Power Technology in Britain
Executive Summary
The purpose of this study is to highlight the developments that have occurred in the Offshore
Wind Power Technology in the United Kingdom. Worldwide the wind power technology has
developed rapidly within a short span of time. in the earlier stages Denmark, China and US
were the main nations at the centre of this revolution. The past 10 years though have seen
Britain rise to take the lead as the world largest generator of offshore wind power. The nature
of the offshore environment made it hard to directly apply the onshore technologies in the
offshore sector. The UK government support, large coastline as well as a friendly political
environment are some reasons for the success of the offshore technology in Britain. The
country though faces some setbacks that will need to be addressed before the industry can be
expanded further; the limited turbine supply, vessel contraction and limited access to
adequate capital leading the way. Tackling of these issues successfully will create room for
massive improvements in the sector.

The Evolution of the Offshore Wind Power Technology in Britain
Contents
Executive Summary..................................................................................................... 2
Contents................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction............................................................................................................... 4
The Current state of offshore wind power technology...........................................................4
Globally................................................................................................................ 4
In Britain............................................................................................................... 5
Impact of the Offshore wind energy in the UK energy system.................................................6
Current and Future technical development.........................................................................7
Foundations............................................................................................................ 7
Towers.................................................................................................................. 8
Blades................................................................................................................... 8
Drivetrain.............................................................................................................. 8
Grid and substation................................................................................................... 9
Barriers and Opportunities............................................................................................. 9
Opportunities.......................................................................................................... 9
Landscape........................................................................................................... 9
Growing capacity of the supply chain.........................................................................9
Stable regime....................................................................................................... 9
Barriers............................................................................................................... 10
Turbines supply chain.......................................................................................... 10
Vessel Contacting............................................................................................... 10
Access to adequate finance.................................................................................... 10
Personalised opinion on the offshore wind technology........................................................11
Conclusions............................................................................................................. 11
References.............................................................................................................. 12

The Evolution of the Offshore Wind Power Technology in Britain
Introduction
The concept low of low carbon energy has been applied to refer to energy originating from
technologies that produce power with a lower carbon output than is currently being emitted
by the fossil fuels (Haggett, 2008). Currently several technologies exist from which the low
carbon energy can be derived. Hydroelectric power, nuclear energy, wind power and solar
energy leading the way.
For the past 30 years several nations and environmentalist organisations have propelled the
global warming debate. Their argument has been based on several scientific findings which
have put fossil fuels at the centre of the global warming menace (DECC, 2009).
As a way of fulfilling its responsibility to the globe the United Kingdom government
identifies wind power as a potential area to generate alternative energy to replace the
overdependency on fossil fuels. In this research the task will be to review the current as well
as the projected state of the offshore wind energy development in the country. This will entail
highlighting the current challenges facing the sector as well as avenues through which Britain
can expand its energy generation (Fried, Sawyer and Shukla, 2013)..
The Current state of offshore wind power technology
Globally
By the end of 2011 the entire globe had over 200,000 fully operating wind turbines installed.
This had the capacity to generate around 238,351 MW of energy. This was developed further
when the entire European Union commissioned an extra 100,000 MW nameplate capacity
(UPI, 2012). Later on the development was further supported by the United States when it
passed 50000 MW in 2012 August, this same month saw China contributing about 50000
MW (ChinaDaily, 2012). Between 2000 and 2006 the global energy generation capacity
nearly quadrupled. The wind energy revolution currently being experienced was pioneered by
the US in the 1980’s when it was the leading installer of wind power energy. This list was
soon joined by Germany and China with the latter approving to be a great contributor of the
technology when they surpassed the US at the top producers of wind power in 2010. Most of
the developed nations have managed to achieve a significant level of the wind energy
penetration as at 2011. Some examples being: Denmark 28%, Portugal 19% Spain 16% with
Germany having 8% penetrations.
This data can be summarised in the table below