INDUSTRY ARTICLE Concrete Sector
UK TAKING THE LEAD The UK has built more offshore wind farms than any other country in the world, accounting for nearly all of the turbines erected in European waters during 2011. And, there is more to come. The Government is committed to installing 3,000 additional wind turbines over the next nine years taking the current 1.3GW of energy generated by offshore wind power to 18GW.
CORES LOCATIONS Initial proposed locations for CORES include Tyneside, Teeside, The Humber, Great Yarmouth and Sheerness. Pook believes that the time is right for investment in offshore wind power and stated that: “2012 will be a crucial year for offshore development and the Government is keen to work with industry to develop and deliver offshore solutions”.
THE CROWN ESTATE As managers of the UK seabed out to a 12 nautical mile limit, The Crown Estate has a major role to play in the development of the offshore wind energy industry.
Adrian Fox, Supply Chain Manager for Crown Estates, outlined what he
MPA- THE CONCRETE CENTRE CONFERENCE At the conference, the support of the Government for offshore wind power was underlined by Chris Pook, Head of the Green Economy Team, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, who opened the conference.
Stating that offshore wind power is integral to the UK’s transition to a greener economy, Pook highlighted the establishment of CORES, centres for offshore renewables engineering, which aim to provide local centres of excellence for development and manufacturing via partnership between central and local government and industry and so pull together both investment focus and offshore expertise.
described as being the world’s largest offshore wind farm programme. He warned, however, that the potential of offshore wind power would only be truly realised with the delivery of greater cost efficiencies for the manufacture, installation and operation of wind turbines.
COST STUDIES The Crown Estate is currently undertaking a series of cost studies examining potential cost savings. Emerging themes include greater site optimisation, early contractor involvement, increased data sharing and project collaboration, larger rotors and more efficient foundation installation. Ultimately, the challenge is to achieve a cost of £100 per megawatt of power generation. With regards to foundations for offshore turbines, Fox
Aims to Ensure UK Leads World in Offshore Wind Power
Eyebrows are often raised on hearing the declaration that the UK is a world leader. With regards to offshore wind power generation, that declaration is true. A recent industry conference, hosted by MPA-The Concrete Centre, heard how the concrete sector has the solutions and capacity to ensure that UK offshore wind generation continues to power ahead.
believes that the third and future rounds of The Crown Estate leasing could favour gravity foundation solutions due to the increased water depth and distance from shore demanding a more robust and maintenance free solution. Indeed, from a depth of 25m - 30m and more, gravity foundations could be the economic solution of choice.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS In addition to long-term robustness and performance, concrete foundations for offshore wind turbines also offer environmental benefits. These include minimum disruption to the sea bed and reduced noise to sea life during installation. At the end of their life they can also be easily decommissioned and recycled. The issues of sea bed disruption and noise to sea life was highlighted by James Bussell of Natural England. He believes that gravity foundations have an advantage in that their installation is less disruptive than monopiles. However, he warned that as yet the UK has little experience of these foundations and called for further modelling and trials to monitor their impact.
MPA-THE CONCRETE CENTRE INTEREST GROUP As a green alternative to carbon fuels, consideration of the environmental impact of wind turbines is essential. Members of The Interest Group for Gravity Foundations – Offshore Wind, run by MPA-The Concrete Centre, have carried out a study to determine the carbon footprint of a typical gravity foundation for offshore wind.
Henrietta Ridgeon of Arup presented the interim results of this study which demonstrated that in part due to the use of reinforcement manufactured from UK-sourced recycled scrap and locally,
04
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148