The Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) is Carbon Trust's
flagship collaborative RD&D programme. Set up in 2008,
the OWA is a joint industry project, involving nine
offshore wind developers with 77% (36GW) of the UK's licensed
capacity, that aims to reduce the cost of offshore wind by 10%
by 2015. Cost reduction is achieved through innovation. Technology
challenges are identified and prioritised by the OWA members based
on the likely savings and the potential for the OWA to influence
the outcomes. Projects are carried out to address these challenges,
often using international competitions to inspire innovation
and identify the best new ideas. The most promising concepts
are developed, de-risked and commercialised as the OWA works
closely with the supply chain throughout the process.
The OWA model brings together Carbon Trust's expertise
in delivering innovation and convening industry consortiums with
the industrial partners' technical knowledge and resources.
The OWA is two-thirds funded by industry and one-third
funded by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change
(DECC).
Contents
Introduction
The case for offshore wind
The Carbon Trust believes that mass deployment of offshore wind
is critical to bridge the UK's energy gap and to meet the UK's
targets for security of supply, carbon reduction and renewable
energy. To meet the EU's 15% renewable energy target for the UK,
over 18GW of offshore is likely to be required by 2020, a 9-fold
increase over the 2GW installed to date. Delivering this level of
deployment will require cost reduction and the introduction of new
technologies to allow wind farms to be installed further from shore
and in deeper water where the wind resource is better.
Carbon Trust's analysis suggests that offshore wind has the
potential to deliver significant benefits to the UK
- A 7% reduction in UK carbon emissions versus 1990
- A quarter of a million UK jobs by 2050
- Annual revenues of some £19 billion by 2050
Read more in our report Offshore
wind power: big challenge, big opportunity (PDF)
The engineering challenge of the decade
Since 2003, just over 600 turbines have been installed in UK
waters, nearly all of which are in water depths less than 20m,
within 25km of the shore. To get to 18GW by 2020, a further 3,000
turbines will need to be installed.
The new turbines will be larger and more complicated
to install, standing in up to 60m of water, as far as 200km
offshore.
From the foot of the foundation to the tip of the blade, the
structures will be as high as 250m, taller than 30 St Mary Axe (the
Gherkin) with turbine rotor diameters about 50% larger than the
London Eye. These power plants will be installed in large arrays in
harsh metocean conditions. The deeper waters will require new
foundation designs to be developed. New installation vessels and
methods will be required to cope with more distant wind farms in
heavier seas, and to deliver faster installation rates. New
electrical and cable systems will be required to minimise
transmission losses and improving reliability. Larger turbines with
more reliable drivetrains will be required to take advantage of the
increased wind resource. New wind farm layouts will be needed to
minimise the wake effects within these larger wind farms and
maximise yields. To meet this challenge, Carbon Trust and the OWA
partners are calling on the best minds in the industry to
apply their knowledge and skills to make offshore wind a viable
commercial proposition.
Where are we now?
In January 2010, The Crown Estate awarded licences to develop
offshore wind in nine Round 3 zones in seas around the UK. The
Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) is focussed on overcoming the
complexities of constructing and running wind farms in these tough
marine conditions. By delivering cost reduction, the OWA will be
improving the economics of offshore wind and accelerating
deployment.
Our partners
The Offshore Wind Accelerator is two-thirds funded by industry
and one-third funded by the UK Department of Energy and Climate
Change (DECC). The Carbon Trust's OWA industrial partners are nine
international energy companies:
- DONG Energy, leading Danish offshore wind farm developer with
over 20 years' experience
- E.ON, Germany's largest utility
- Mainstream Renewable Power, founded by Dr. Eddie O'Connor and
Fintan Whelan, the former CEO and CFO of Airtricity
- RWE Innogy, Europe-wide renewables business of the German RWE
group
- Scottish Power Renewables, UK's largest onshore wind farm
developer
- SSE Renewables (formerly Airtricity), the renewable energy
development division of Scottish and Southern Energy
- Statkraft, the Norwegian state owned utility
- Statoil, Norwegian international energy company
- Vattenfall, the owner of the second largest fleet of offshore
wind farms in the world
The Government funding for OWA is provided by the UK's
Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
The programme
The OWA Research Development & Demonstration
programme is focusing on five areas:
- Foundations - Developing new turbine foundation designs for
30-60m water depths that are cheaper to fabricate and install
- Access systems - Developing improved access systems to transfer
technicians and equipment onto turbines for operations and
maintenance in heavier seas
- Wake effects - Improving the layout of large wind farms to
reduce wake effects and optimise yields
- Electrical systems - Developing new electrical systems to
reduce transmission losses and increase reliability
- Cable installation - Improving cable installation methods
These research areas were chosen as they represented the
greatest potential for reducing the total cost of constructing,
operating, and financing large offshore wind farms.
Learn more about the OWA foundations
innovators (PDF 0.1MB) and the OWA access system innovators (PDF
0.5MB).
Progress so far
Stage 1 of the OWA started in October 2008 with 5
Partners. This stage of the OWA primarily consisted of
R&D and concept development. The outputs of Stage 1 were
presented at the
Renewable UK conference in Liverpool (PDF, 1MB).
Stage 2 of the OWA saw the addition of three
new Partners. This stage will run until at least 2014 and
focuses on commercialising the most promising concepts from Stage
1, often using demonstration. The first major demonstration project
was launched in March 2011 - installing the Keystone 'twisted
jacket' foundation to support a met mast at Hornsea, 100km offshore
in 30m water depths. Carbon Trust presented the latest OWA findings (May 2012) at
All Energy in Aberdeen.
Presentations on specific research topics
include:
View further information on
the Aid Scheme under which Carbon Trust provides
Grant funding under Stage 2 (PDF, 194kB).
Structure
The OWA is structured around the five research
areas described above. Each area is directed by a Technical
Working Group (TWG) of relevant experts from the partner
organisations. In some cases a Technical Delivery
Consultant (TDC), which is an engineering consultancy with
expertise in the research area, carries out the projects within the
research area. These have included Frazer Nash, Grontmij, GL Noble
Denton, J P Kenny, DNV Kema, TNEI and Atkins.
Innovators and designers are managed by the Carbon Trust and the
TDC, and a Steering Committee oversees the strategic direction of
the programme. This structure is represented in the diagram
below.
The innovators
Technology innovation is the heart of the Offshore Wind
Accelerator, and significant cost savings can only be achieved
through the creativity and passion of the designers.
The four winners of the OWA Foundation Competition are:
- GBF
- Keystone Engineering
- SPT Offshore
- Universal Foundation
The 13 finalists of the OWA Access Competition are;
- Autobrow by Otso and Ad Hoc Marine
Design,
- LARS by DIVEX,
- TranSPAR by ExtremeOcean,
- Windserver by Fjellstrand,
- TAS
II by Houlder and BMT Nigel Gee,
- Wind Bridge by Knud E.
Hansen,
-
MOTS by Momac,
- Nauti-craft,
- Pivoting Deck Vessel by North Sea Logistics,
- L&R by Offshore Kinetics,
- SolidSea Transfer by Strathclyde University,
- Surface Effect Ship by Umoe Mandal,
- Z-Port by Z-Port Technologies.
The OWA Wake Effects research area has worked closely
with Ansys and DTU.
Nexans and Prysmian have developed 66kV cable
designs for our OWA Electrical research area.
Other offshore wind
resources
Leading European offshore wind research organisations
include:
- CDT by
Strathclyde University
- CENER
-
The Crown Estate
- DTU
- ETI
- FLOW@SEA by ECN
- IDCore by Strathclyde University
- LORC
- NORCOWE by CMR
- NOWITECH by
SINTEF
-
NWIP by NAREC
- ORE Catapult by Carbon Trust, Narec and Ocean Energy
Innovation
- RAVE
by Fraunhofer IWES
- Supergen Wind Consortium by
Strathclyde
- SWPTC by Chalmers
University of Technology
- VINDFORSK
III by Elfork
-
VINDVAL (PDF) by Environmental Protection Agency
- WE@SEA by ECN
The Carbon Trust has worked with a number of trade bodies that
are focusing on offshore wind:
- EWEA
- IMarEST
- RenewableUK
- Royal Institue of Naval
Architects
- Society of
Maritime Industries
Details of global offshore wind projects and the supply chain
are published by 4C Offshore's
website in their Global Offshore Wind Farms Database.
For potential funding opportunities outside of OWA, please
see; the
Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) website, the Offshore Wind Scotland
web portal and TP Wind's
website.
Contact
For more information on the Offshore Wind Accelerator,
please contact Jan
Matthiesen