The Offshore Wind Accelerator is a unique collaboration between the Carbon Trust and nine international energy companies with licences to develop 77% of the UK’s offshore wind capacity
Offshore Wind Accelerator Newsletter
Contacts Carbon Trust
Breanne Gellatly, Jan Matthiesen
DONG Energy Jørn
Scharling Holm
E.ON Jörgen Bodin, Mar-
tin Lindholm
Mainstream Bernard
Casey, Cameron Smith
RWE Innogy Aidan
Marchand, Friedrich
Koch ScottishPower
Renewables Lynne
Bryceland, Christopher
Leach
SSE Renewables Sol
Judah, Hamish Oag
Statkraft Elly Karlsen,
Klaus Udesen
Statoil Eirik Byklum, Stein Trygve Briskeby
Vattenfall Jens Madsen,
Andy Paine
Offshore Wind Accelerator: Collaborative RD&D that aims to reduce the cost of energy by 10%
April 2014 Issue 8 Page 1
Editorial
The last OWA newsletter was issued in March 2013, and it’s been a
testing time for the
industry over the last year. There is more clarity about EMR, but the economics of a number of offshore wind projects now look challenging,
especially for utilities with struggling balance sheets.
What is clear is that cost reduction is more important than
ever, and innovation
is critical to deliver it. There have been a number of key successes from OWA in the last year, but the industry needs to
continue to work together to drive down costs.
In January 2014, an
agreement was reached
to demonstrate the first
OWA foundation with a
turbine. DONG Energy
will be installing the
suction bucket jacket in
Germany in Q3 2014,
supporting a Siemens
3.6MW turbine. The
design is inspired by
OWA foundation
competition finalist SPT
Offshore. The suction
bucket jacket is
designed for serial
fabrication, with
significant modularity and standard sections.
It should be faster and
less weather sensitive to
install than other
foundations because it
The OWA was set up in
2008, initially as an 18-
month pilot involving
five energy companies.
In 2010, the
OWA members agree to extend by 2-years to 30 June 2016
programme was
extended for a further 4
years to 30 June 2014,
and the membership
grew first to eight then
DONG suction bucket jacket
Image: DONG 2014
to nine members.
Carbon Trust is
delighted to announce
that in January 2014, all
nine OWA members
OWA foundation and turbine demonstrator: the suction bucket jacket
uses three suction
buckets. The
demonstration should
be the first of three
novel foundation
demonstrations
supported by the
Carbon Trust and six
OWA members –
DONG Energy, E.ON,
Mainstream Renewable
Power, ScottishPower
Renewables, Statkraft
and Statoil. Hopefully
demonstrations of
Universal Foundation
and Keystone will follow
in 2015 and 2016.
In Spring 2013, the
OWA partners, The
Crown Estate, Marine
Scotland and DECC
approached the Carbon
Trust to manage the
Offshore Renewables Joint
Industry Programme
(ORJIP) in association
with OWA. The aim of
ORJIP is to improve the
understanding of the
environmental impacts
from offshore wind, to
reduce the risk of
consenting, and in
addition to the 9 OWA
partners, includes 6
further partners,
Centrica, EDF, EDPR,
Eneco, Fluor, Repsol
and Siemens. The first
project kicked off in
March 2014, is aimed at
better understanding
the collision risk of
marine bird by
cataloguing behaviour
exercised an option to
extend OWA by a
further two-years.
This will allow more
within and around a
wind farm. The findings
from the project will
feed into collision risk
models and includes a
2yr monitoring phase,
to start in June 2014 at
Vattenfall’s Thanet wind
farm using cameras,
radar and aerial
photography.
OWA to tackle environmental issues through ‘ORJIP’
The Offshore Wind Accelerator is a unique collaboration between the Carbon Trust and nine international energy companies with licences to develop 77% of the UK’s offshore wind capacity
Page 2 • Issue 8 • April 2014 Offshore Wind Accelerator Newsletter
Access systems Sea trials As part of OWA, a set of vessel
sea trial procedures have been
developed to quantify the
performance of vessels and
transfer systems using
performance plots (p-plots).
Similar to Dynamic Positioning
plots, p-plots indicate the
performance envelope for
vessels depending on the sea
height, wave height and wave
period. Sea trials were
undertaken for the MOTS
transfer system and the
MaXccess transfer system in
summer 2013, and lessons
from these trials have led to a
need to further develop
streamlined sea trial
procedures that will be faster
to execute and build on
numerical and tank testing
results.
Four new sea trials are planned
for 2014 by RWE Innogy and
Vattenfall – North Sea Logistics
Discovery, Iceni Victory,
Turbine Transfers Cymyran Bay
and CWind 20T with TAS-2. Nauti-Craft undergoing sea trials in Australia
Fjellstrand enters into service Fjellstrand WindServer, one of
thirteen finalists from the OWA
Access Competition, entered
into service in September 2013
with DONG Energy.
Unfortunately, the vessel has
returned to the yard for some
further upgrades. Further
vessels are currently under
construction.
OWA continues to support
seven innovative designs:
Vessels
UMOE Mandal – UMOE is
receiving financial and technical
support to refine the motion
control systems for the rapid
WaveCraft surface effects ship.
UMOE received their first
commercial order to build a
vessel in October 2013.
Nauti-Craft – Nauti-Craft is
receiving support to build an 8m
prototype of the twin-hulled
suspension vessel. Sea trials
have been in progress in
Australian waters, and the
vessel is now being shipped to
Europe for demonstrations at
SeaWork in June.
TranSPAR – Support to the
SPAR-like vessel has been used
to leverage funding from the
Canadian Government and
private investors to fund a full-
scale prototype. Fabrication of
the vessel is about to start.
PDV – The benefits of the
pivoting deck vessel are now
well understood, and OWA is
funding business advice to
North Sea Logistics to help them
get the first vessel to market.
Transfer systems
VGrip – Just over a year ago
Seaspeed presented compelling tank testing data
showing how a V-shaped
fender could increase the
weather window for transfers.
Seaspeed is now receiving
support from OWA to quantify
the benefit for single and twin
V-grips compared to
conventional fenders.
TDD “The Claw” – The OWA
Access Competition included a
design for a gripping device. It
was universally popular, but
wasn’t part of a full transfer
system concept, so was not
initially supported. The concept
has significantly matured, and
the innovators are now
receiving support from OWA.
The robust gripping system
could be a simple way of
improving vessel performance.
Launch and recovery systems
Divex – Divex is receiving
financial and technical support
to tank test their launch and
recovery system that can be
retro-fitted to offshore service
vessels.
SeaWork
The innovators supported
by OWA will be showcased
at SeaWork on
10-12 June 2014, including
demonstrations of
Nauti-Craft’s 8m prototype.
http://www.seawork.com
TAS undergoing sea trials
Cable installation
Physical testing of free-
hanging cables is due to start.
The OWA has been assessing
the potential to use externally
free-hanging cables in
commercial wind farms as an
alternative to internal cabling.
The advantage are a reduced
risk of cable damage during
installation and fewer offshore
operations. Physical testing of
cables will be undertaken at
University of Southampton to
understand the limitations
of free-hanging cables to
inform future cable design
specification.
In addition, the cable
installation technical
working group has started
a project to improve burial
process and update the
Burial Protection Index so
it is fit for offshore wind.
TAS undergoing sea trials TAS Transfer system
The Offshore Wind Accelerator is a unique collaboration between the Carbon Trust and nine international energy companies with licences to develop 77% of the UK’s offshore wind capacity
Offshore Wind Accelerator Newsletter April 2014 • Issue 8 • Page 3
Foundations Universal Foundation
In September 2013, a second Universal Foundation was successfully installed at Dogger Bank to support a met mast. The suction bucket foundation was successfully installed 150km offshore in 25m water in 7 hours, which shows that the design has enormous potential for reducing installation costs for offshore foundations.
The OWA foundation competition finalist had originally been scheduled for installation in January 2013, but the installation had to be re-planned after a small technical issue resulted in damage to the bucket during an earlier installation attempt. The bucket foundation will be heavily monitored to provide the Discretionary Project
Project updates
Serial fabrication — a study has been completed to
quantify the benefits of
adopting serial fabrication to
construct foundations.
Installation optimisations —
a study has been completed to
identify quick wins to reduce
the time and cost of installing
foundations using today’s
installation vessels.
Suction buckets — a study has been completed to
consolidate all the research
that has been done in relation
to suction bucket foundations
and to identify any research
gaps that need to be closed
before suction buckets are
accepted for commercial
projects in offshore wind.
Lifted vs floated —
a study has been launched to
compare the costs of installing
concrete foundations
depending on whether they are
floated out and self-installed,
or installed from a lifting vessel.
Lifetime integrity –
a study has been launched to
understand how to optimise
lifetime costs of balance of
plant – the trade-off between
investing more upfront to
protect the structures
(more CapEx), or to pay-less
upfront and undertake more
maintenance activities
(more OpEx).
UF and keystone demo with turbine Following the announcement of the suction bucket jacket and turbine demonstration by DONG Energy, OWA is looking to find a developer willing to host a demonstration of Universal Foundation or Keystone with a turbine in 2015 or 2016. DONG Energy, E.ON, Mainstream, ScottishPower Renewables, Statkraft and Statoil together with Carbon Trust are all willing to contribute ~£6m towards the costs, in return for the sharing of information about the demonstration. The Carbon Trust is running a call for hosts – open to OWA members and turbine manufacturers in June 2014.
Foundation choices for larger rotor turbines — in December 2013, a study to determine the installed costs of foundations to support larger rotor turbines was completed. Assuming the 8MW Vestas V164 turbine, the study benchmarks the OWA foundation finalists together with an optimised jacket and a monopile to determine the costs at different water depths. The study confirms the benefit of the OWA finalists compared to jackets and monopiles.
Onshore test of vibrodriving is go — In January 2014, an agreement was reached for RWE Innogy to demonstrate the installation of a large monopile using a vibratory hammer. The VIBRO project aims to prove that soils maintain sufficient bearing
UF successfully installed at Dogger Bank
Universal Foundation Trial Installation project scheduled for 2014 The trial installation Discretionary Project to prove that suction bucket foundations can be installed in complex layered soil conditions has been significantly re-scoped and is scheduled for autumn 2014. The project will build on a series of trial installations that Statoil undertook in 2013 using a 3 x 5m suction anchor, installing a 8 x 6m suction anchor that is representative of Universal Foundation (UF) 20 times in the North Sea. A reference design will also be installed at the same locations to ensure the performance of the cookie-cutter design with clay chambers and the UF jetting system are well understood. The project will be led by Statoil, with Statkraft, DONG Energy and E.ON expected to participate – other OWA members are welcome to join.
capacity, avoiding the need for the use of piling to install monopiles and jackets. If successful, vibro-driving will be accepted by bodies such as BSH for foundation installation. The discretionary project is being supported by RWE Innogy, DONG Energy, E.ON, Statkraft and Vattenfall.
participants an understanding of the performance of the structure under wave loading.
A workshop was held in Hamburg in February 2014 where the history of installations of Universal Foundation, from the first at Fredrikshavn in 2003 supporting Vestas V90 to the Universal Foundations at Dogger Bank, were explained in detail to developers and the supply chain.
Electrical
In summer 2013, a
Discretionary Project was launched to qualify 66kV
cables. Supported by DONG
Energy, E.ON, ScottishPower
Renewables, Statkraft and
Vattenfall, the project is
providing financial and
technical support to a number
of cable suppliers to develop
and qualify wet-type 66kV
cables. If successful, the last
jigsaw piece will be in place to
allow developers to adopt 66kV
in commercial projects.
Project updates:
HVDC – 66kV optimisation –
A project has been launched to
optimise the design of HVDC
platforms for 66kV. Carbon
Trust and Arup hosted a
workshop on 2 April in London
which attracted over 100
delegates across the supply
chain.
AC transmission – A study has been launched to
understand how AC
transmission technology can
be improved to extend it
further from shore.
The Offshore Wind Accelerator is a unique collaboration between the Carbon Trust and nine international energy companies with licences to develop 77% of the UK’s offshore wind capacity
Offshore Wind Accelerator Newsletter April 2014 • Issue 8 • Page 4
Upcoming TWG meetings
TWG-A — 12 May
TWG-C —4 June
TWG-E — 3 June
TWG-F — 3 June
TWG-W — mid-June
ORJIP — 17 June
Following the successful trial of FLIDAR at Gwynt Y Mor over winter 2012/13, FLIDAR was deployed by DONG Energy at Burbo over the summer 2013, and the availability data contributed to the OWA to create a compelling body of evidence to show that FLIDAR measures wind speed and wind direction very accurately and reliably. In January 2014, Mainstream launched a new Discretionary Project to first validate the revised version of FLIDAR at Narec next to their met mast, after which it will be deployed at Neart Na Goithe.
Babcock’s floating LIDAR system was deployed at Gwynt Y Mor in July 2013, where the wind speed and direction continues to be validated against the fixed met mast.
Offshore floating
LIDAR trials The Carbon Trust is working closely with RWE Innogy, Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables to set up further trials for floating LIDAR systems in the North Sea. The first step was to launch a tender for suppliers to deploy their units at either Ijmuiden or East Anglia Array. As many as four units may be deployed as a Discretionary Project, subject to the responses from the suppliers. These trials will help to get floating LIDAR accepted as a bankable alternative to fixed met masts.
At EWEA in November 2013, an OWA Roadmap to Commercialise Floating LIDAR was presented, setting clear requirements for floating LIDAR suppliers to meet for their systems to be accepted as bankable for measuring primary wind resource data.
Wake effects
Project updates:
Meso-scale – The first phase of a study to determine whether mesoscale models can be used to forecast wake effects between wind farms has been completed. CERC used a roughness and calibration approach, KVT a novel momentum sink approach; both models predicted long-range wake effects well for a Horns Rev 1 case study. The challenge will be to get the results accepted as bankable. The next step is for the
Ambitious wake effects measurement campaign underway at Rødsand II
The project has three goals
- To improve understanding of
wake effects for small bin sizes
- High frequency data is being
collected to allow accuracy of
wakes models to be tested
- To improve understanding of
bulk flow – especially relevant
for CFD models
- To improve understanding of
turbulence – and how this is
modelled within wakes models.
The measurement campaign
has now been extended to run
for a total of 12-months to
maximise the learnings from
the measurements. Initial
analysis of the data from the first months of the campaign is
being completed, and will
inform how scan patterns are
changed for the remainder of
the campaign.
In May 2013, two scanning LIDARs and four nacelle-mounted LIDARs were installed at E.ON’s Rødsand II wind farm to measure wake effects within an operational wind farm.
Equipment being installed
Images: modelled yield within wind farm and measured data (below)
momentum sink approach to be tested for a different wind farm. There is also interest to combining mesoscale with CFD.
Fuga – the linearised wake effect modelling tool has now been made commercially available, a key step to getting banks’ acceptance of its use for wind resource assessments.
Knowledge Management
PhD on OWA – Heather
Madsen of Aalborg University
has received her Doctorate
Degree on March 21st, 2014
her thesis was titled:
Knowledge Management in
Renewable Energy Innovation:
A Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator Case Study.
ORJIP—The Bird Collision
Avoidance project is aimed at
gathering a more robust set
of data to inform consenting
decisions. This project will be
undertaken at Vattenfall’s
Thanet site using equipment
and analysis provided by
Niras and DHI. A funding
agreements between 8 OWA
members and other
developers active in the UK
are being signed.