Offshore wind power in the US: Regulatory issues and models for regulation

The first offshore wind farm became operational in 1991 in Vindeby, Denmark. By 2008, large offshore wind farms had been built in Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Sweden with a total capacity of 1200 MW. Offshore wind farms have the potential to generate a significant fraction of US electrical consumption, but the US currently lacks offshore wind farms and is still developing a regulatory system. At the state level only Texas has a leasing system for offshore wind. Since all offshore land is the property of the state and cannot be legally developed without a lease from the government, these absences have stalled development. We review and compare regulatory and leasing systems developed in Europe and the US to inform a discussion of the major issues associated with the development of an offshore leasing and regulatory system. We focus on the tradeoffs between encouraging a sustainable energy source and ensuring environmental protection and public compensation. We conclude that there are likely multiple effective methods of regulation.     

Pricing offshore wind power

Offshore wind offers a very large clean power resource, but electricity from the first US offshore wind contracts is costlier than current regional wholesale electricity prices. To better understand the factors that drive these costs, we develop a pro-forma cash flow model to calculate two results: the levelized cost of energy, and the breakeven price required for financial viability. We then determine input values based on our analysis of capital markets and of 35 operating and planned projects in Europe, China, and the United States. The model is run for a range of inputs appropriate to US policies, electricity markets, and capital markets to assess how changes in policy incentives, project inputs, and financial structure affect the breakeven price of offshore wind power. The model and documentation are made publicly available.     

Potential role of power authorities in offshore wind power development in the US

This article examines how power authorities could facilitate and manage offshore wind power development in US coastal waters. The power authority structure is an American 20th century institution for managing energy resources—a form of a public authority or public corporation dedicated to creating, operating and maintaining electric generation and transmission infrastructure. Offshore wind power is characterized by high capital costs but no fuel costs and thus low operating costs. Therefore a power authority, by virtue of its access to low-cost capital and managerial flexibility, could facilitate offshore wind power development by reducing financial risk of developing and lowering debt payments, thus improving the risk profile and lowering the cost of electricity production. Additionally, power authorities can be made up of multiple states, thus opening the possibility for joint action by neighboring coastal states. Using primary and secondary data, we undertake an in-depth analysis of the potential benefits and shortcomings of a power authority approach.     

The offshore trend: Structural changes in the wind power sector

In recent years, the wind power sector has begun to move offshore, i.e. to use space and good wind speeds on the open sea for large scale electricity generation. Offshore wind power, however, is not just technologically challenging but also a capital intensive and risky business that requires particular financial and organizational resources not all potential investors might have. We therefore address the question, what impact offshore wind power may have on ownership and organizational structures in the wind power sector. We compare on- and offshore wind park ownership in Denmark, the UK and Germany. The analysis shows that offshore wind power in all three countries is dominated by large firms, many of which are from the electricity sector. In Denmark and the UK, also investors from the gas and oil industry play an important role in the offshore wind business. This development represents a major shift for countries such as Germany and Denmark, in which the wind power sector has grown and matured on the basis of investments by individuals, farmers, cooperatives and independent project developers. The structural changes by which offshore wind power is accompanied have consequences for turbine manufacturers, project developers, investors, associations and policy makers in the field.     

Simulation of electricity supply of an Atlantic island by offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters associated with a medium scale local energy storage

The problem of sizing an electricity storage for a 5000 inhabitants island supplied by both marine renewables (offshore wind and waves) and the mainland grid is addressed by a case study based on a full year resource and consumption data. Generators, transmission lines and battery storage are accounted for through basic simplified models while the focus is put on electricity import/export budget. Self-sufficiency does not seem a reasonable goal to pursue, but partial autonomy provided by renewable sources and a medium size storage would probably be profitable to the island community.     

The economics of offshore wind

This paper presents an overview of the main issues associated with the economics of offshore wind. Investment in offshore wind systems has been growing rapidly throughout Europe, and the technology will be essential in meeting EU targets for renewable energy in 2020. Offshore wind suffers from high installation and connection costs, however, making government support essential. We review various support policies used in Europe, concluding that tender-based feed-in tariff schemes, as used in Denmark, may be best for providing adequate support while minimising developers’ rents. It may prove economic to build an international offshore grid connecting wind farms belonging to different countries that are sited close to each other.     

Technological learning in offshore wind energy: Different roles of the government

Offshore wind energy is a promising source of renewable electricity, even though its current costs prevent large-scale implementation. Technological learning has improved the technology and its economic performance already, and could result in significant further improvements. This study investigates how technological learning takes place in offshore wind energy and how technological learning is related to different policy regimes. Offshore wind energy developments in Denmark and the United Kingdom have been analysed with a technology-specific innovation systems approach. The results reveal that the dominant forms of learning are learning by doing and learning by using. At the same time, learning by interacting is crucial to achieve the necessary binding elements in the technology-specific innovation system. Generally, most learning processes were performed by self-organizing entities. However, sometimes cultural and technical barriers occurred, excluding component suppliers and knowledge institutes from the innovation system. Danish policies successfully anticipated these barriers and removed them; therefore, the Danish policies can be characterized as pro-active. British policies shaped stable conditions for learning only; therefore, they can be characterized as active. In the future, barriers could hinder learning by interacting between the oil and gas industry, the offshore wind industry and academia. Based on this study, we suggest national and international policy makers to design long-term policies to anticipate these barriers, in order to contribute to technological learning.     

Assessing offshore wind resources: An accessible methodology

This paper describes a method for assessing the electric production and value of wind resources, specifically for the offshore environment. Three steps constitute our method. First, we map the available area, delimiting bathymetric areas based on turbine tower technology, then assess competing uses of the ocean to establish exclusion zones. From exclusion zones, bathymetry, and turbine tower water depth limitations, the water sheet area available for wind turbines is calculated. The second step is calculation of power production starting from available area, which determines the location and count of turbines. Then existing wind data are extrapolated to turbine height and, along with the turbine power output curve, they are used to establish the expected electric power production on an hourly basis. The third step calculates market value based on the hourly electric market at the nearest electric grid node.To illustrate these methods, we assess the offshore wind resource of the US state of Delaware. We find year-round average output of over 5200 MW, or about four times the average electrical consumption of the state. On local wholesale electricity markets, this would produce just over $2 billion/year in revenue.Because the methods described here do not rely on constructing meteorological towers nor on proprietary software, they are more accessible to a local government, state college, or other organization. For example, these methods can be carried out as an initial assessment of resources, or by a government or public entity as a check on claims by private applicants.     

Optimal integration of offshore wind power for a steadier,environmentally friendlier,supply of electricity in China

Demand for electricity in China is concentrated to a significant extent in its coastal provinces. Opportunities for production of electricity by on-shore wind facilities are greatest, however, in the north and west of the country. Using high resolution wind data derived from the GEOS-5 assimilation, this study shows that investments in off-shore wind facilities in these spatially separated regions (Bohai-Bay or BHB, Yangtze-River Delta or YRD, Pearl-River Delta or PRD) could make an important contribution to overall regional demand for electricity in coastal China. An optimization analysis indicates that hour-to-hour variability of outputs from a combined system can be minimized by investing 24% of the power capacity in BHB, 30% in YRD and 47% in PRD. The analysis suggests that about 28% of the overall off-shore wind potential could be deployed as base load power replacing coal-fired system with benefits not only in terms of reductions in CO₂ emissions but also in terms of improvements in regional air quality. The interconnection of off-shore wind resources contemplated here could be facilitated by China's 12th-five-year plan to strengthen inter-connections between regional electric-power grids.     

Offshore wind power policy and planning in Sweden

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the role of policy support schemes and planning systems for inducing offshore wind power development in Sweden. Specifically, it highlights the different types of economic, political and planning-related conditions that face offshore wind power investors in Sweden, and provides brief comparisons to the corresponding investment conditions in Denmark, Norway and the UK. The analysis shows that in Sweden existing policy incentives are generally too weak to promote a significant development of offshore wind power, and the paper provides a discussion about a number of political and economic aspects on the choice between different support schemes for offshore wind in the country. Swedish permitting and planning procedures, though, appear favorable to such a development, not the least in comparison to the corresponding processes in the other major offshore wind countries in Europe (e.g., the UK). On a general level the paper illustrates that the success and failure stories of national offshore wind policies and institutions cannot be easily transferred across country borders, and the analysis shows that both the political and the legal frameworks governing the investment situation for offshore wind farms in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK differ significantly.     

我国海上风电的发展与技术现状分析

对国内外海上风电发展现状进行了对比分析,介绍了我国发展海上风电的优势和面临的困难,并针对海上风电场在设计、施工和运行等阶段可能出现的问题进行了思考和探讨.     

Continuous spatial modelling to analyse planning and economic consequences of offshore wind energy

Offshore wind resources appear abundant, but technological, economic and planning issues significantly reduce the theoretical potential. While massive investments are anticipated and planners and developers are scouting for viable locations and consider risk and impact, few studies simultaneously address potentials and costs together with the consequences of proposed planning in an analytical and continuous manner and for larger areas at once. Consequences may be investments short of efficiency and equity, and failed planning routines. A spatial resource economic model for the Danish offshore waters is presented, used to analyse area constraints, technological risks, priorities for development and opportunity costs of maintaining competing area uses. The SCREAM-offshore wind model (Spatially Continuous Resource Economic Analysis Model) uses raster-based geographical information systems (GIS) and considers numerous geographical factors, technology and cost data as well as planning information. Novel elements are weighted visibility analysis and geographically recorded shipping movements as variable constraints. A number of scenarios have been described, which include restrictions of using offshore areas, as well as alternative uses such as conservation and tourism. The results comprise maps, tables and cost-supply curves for further resource economic assessment and policy analysis. A discussion of parameter variations exposes uncertainties of technology development, environmental protection as well as competing area uses and illustrates how such models might assist in ameliorating public planning, while procuring decision bases for the political process. The method can be adapted to different research questions, and is largely applicable in other parts of the world.     

Economics of producing hydrogen as transportation fuel using offshore wind energy systems

Over the past few years, hydrogen has been recognized as a suitable substitute for present vehicular fuels. This paper covers the economic analysis of one of the most promising hydrogen production methods—using wind energy for producing hydrogen through electrolysis of seawater—with a concentration on the Indian transport sector. The analysis provides insights about several questions such as the advantages of offshore plants over coastal installations, economics of large wind-machine clusters, and comparison of cost of producing hydrogen with competing gasoline. Robustness of results has been checked by developing several scenarios such as fast/slow learning rates for wind systems for determining future trends. Results of this analysis show that use of hydrogen for transportation is not likely to be attractive before 2012, and that too with considerable learning in wind, electrolyzer and hydrogen storage technology.     

Offshore wind development in China and its future with the existing renewable policy

Based on independent studies, this paper focuses on the significant discrepancy of 15 GW between the installed onshore wind generation capacity and what has been actually connected to the power network to reveal the challenges in meeting the Chinese renewable energy target. The recent accidents in Chinese North-Western transmission network (in February–April, 2011) demonstrated the urgent need for a fundamental review of the Chinese renewable energy policy. Offshore wind has been identified as the most feasible alternative to onshore wind to help deliver electricity to Eastern China during the summer peak time. By investigating and summarizing first hand experiences of participation in the Chinese renewable market, the authors provide the economic figures of the first cohort of Chinese offshore wind schemes. Large state owned enterprises (SOE) are dominating the offshore wind development, repeating their previous practices on the land. While this paper acknowledges the critical role of offshore wind generation in meeting Chinese renewable energy targets, it envisages an installed offshore capacity of approximately 2000 MW by 2015, much less than the 10000 MW governmental estimation, which can be attributed to the lack of detailed energy policy, network constraints, offshore wind installation difficulties and quality issues in the manufacture of turbines.     

Current situation and development of wind power in China

The current development of wind power in China was presented in this paper. Many regions such as Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and southeast coastal region, etc. in China have abundant wind energy resource. At the same time, the utilization of wind power in China has been developing quickly and its prospect is promising in spite of many some obstacles. With the implementation of the Renewable Energy Law, some previous obstacles have been or are being eliminated. Much investment and many enterprises start to enter this field. In spite of this, there still exist some financial and technological obstacles. One of the technological obstacles is the stability of local power grid owing to the increasing proportion of the wind power capacity. Because the centralized development mode of wind power was adopted, the quick fluctuation of wind speed will influence the voltage and frequency stability of local power grid. In addition, large wind farm has little dispatching ability because of the uncontrollability, randomness and fluctuation of natural incoming wind. To erase these obstacles, a novel hybrid power system combining wind farm and small gas turbine power plants is discussed.     

Techno-economic feasibility of fleets of far offshore hydrogen-producing wind energy converters

Innovative solutions need to be developed for harvesting wind energy far offshore. They necessarily involve on-board energy storage because grid-connection would be prohibitively expensive. Hydrogen is one of the most promising solutions. However, it is well-known that it is challenging to store and transport hydrogen which may have a critical impact on the delivered hydrogen cost.In this paper, it is shown that there are vast areas far offshore where wind power is both characterized by high winds and limited seasonal variations. Capturing a fraction of this energy could provide enough energy to cover the forecast global energy demand for 2050. Thus, scenarios are proposed for the exploitation of this resource by fleets of hydrogen-producing wind energy converters sailing autonomously. The scenarios include transportation and distribution of the produced hydrogen.The delivered hydrogen cost is estimated for the various scenarios in the short term and in the longer term. Cost estimates are derived using technical and economic data available in the literature and assumptions for the cost of electricity available on-board the wind energy converters. In the shorter term, delivered cost estimates are in the range 7.1–9.4 €/kg depending on the scenario and the delivery distance. They are based on the assumption of on-board electricity cost at 0.08€/kWh. In the longer term, assuming an on-board electricity cost at 0.04€.kWh, the cost estimates could reduce to 3.5 to 5.7 €/kg which would make the hydrogen competitive on several hydrogen markets without any support mechanism. For the hydrogen to be competitive on all hydrogen markets including the ones with the highest GHG emissions, a carbon tax of approximately 200 €/kg would be required.     

世界风电产业发展综述

风力发电是目前最具商业化和市场竞争力的可再生能源技术。随着风电技术日趋成熟,风电产业在全球范围得到大力发展,并保持持续增长的势头。全世界风力资源丰富,风力发电将成为最重要的替代能源之一,但风电产业的发展受政策影响较大。文章阐述了世界风力发电产业的现状,分析了世界风电产业的发展趋势。     

Policy stakeholders and deployment of wind power in the sub-national context: A comparison of four U.S. states

As climate change mitigation gains attention in the United States, low-carbon energy technologies such as wind power encounter both opportunities and barriers en route to deployment. This paper provides a state-level context for examining wind power deployment and presents research on how policy stakeholders perceive wind energy in four states: Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, and Texas. Through semi-structured interviews, state-level energy policy stakeholders were asked to explain their perceptions of wind energy technology within their state. Interview texts were coded to assess how various drivers promote or hinder the deployment of wind power in sub-national contexts. Responses were dominated by technical, political, and economic frames in all four states, but were often driven by a very different rationale. Environmental, aesthetic, and health/safety frames appeared less often in the discourse. This analysis demonstrates that each state arrived at its current level of deployment via very different political, economic, and technical paths. In addition to helping explain why and how wind technology was – or was not – deployed in each of these states, these findings provide insight into the diversity of sub-national dialogues on deployment of low-carbon energy technologies.     

我国的风电技术和风电发展

发展风力发电是我国能源战略的一项重要内容.文章首先介绍了我国风电利用的总体状况;然后从风机叶片制造、控制系统及整机制造等方面,详述了现阶段我国风电设备的基本状况;最后对我国风电发展障碍进行了分析,并提出了相关建议.     

Offshore transmission for wind: Comparing the economic benefits of different offshore network configurations

It has been argued that increasing transmission network capacity is vital to ensuring the full utilisation of renewables in Europe. The significant wind generation capacity proposed for the North Sea combined with high penetrations of other intermittent renewables across Europe has raised interest in different approaches to connecting offshore wind that might also increase interconnectivity between regions in a cost effective way. These analyses to assess a number of putative North Sea networks confirm that greater interconnection capacity between regions increases the utilisation of offshore wind energy, reducing curtailed wind energy by up to 9 TWh in 2030 based on 61 GW of installed capacity, and facilitating a reduction in annual generation costs of more than €0.5bn. However, at 2013 fuel and carbon prices, such additional network capacity allows cheaper high carbon generation to displace more expensive lower carbon plant, increasing coal generation by as much as 24 TWh and thereby increasing CO₂ emissions. The results are sensitive to the generation “merit order” and a sufficiently high carbon price would yield up to a 28% decrease in emissions depending on the network case. It is inferred that carbon pricing may impact not only generation investment but also the benefits associated with network development.