Influence of offshore wind turbine size in levelised cost of energy

Abstract

Offshore wind energy is developing rapidly in recent years. Within the offshore wind energy industry, the main advance that has occurred has been the wind turbine growth. In fact, the offshore turbines have changed from small turbines adapted to the marine environment to turbines that currently range between 16~18 MW. This increase has been done in order to cut down costs and get longer production of wind energy, consequently, reducing the levelized cost of energy. The current mechanisms for assigning marine sites are based on successive auctions organized by government agencies. In some countries, these auctions are carried out through reverse bidding, that is, they are awarded to the promoters who present the lowest sales price for the energy generated or, in the case of other countries, that price marked in the auction has a partial weight of 60%~80% in the final ranking. Other countries organize a second type of reverse auction to award subsidies, which, being limited, are awarded to the promoters who present the lowest energy sales price. In this article, a comparative study developed for evaluation of the value of levelized cost of energy, as a result of bigger nameplate capacity of the offshore wind turbines. The results show that the bigger turbine capacity, the lower the levelized cost of energy is obtained.