Abstract
With the ground breaking 160 megawatt wind farm Horns Rev, off the coast of Denmark in the North Sea, installed and operating, offshore wind energy experts are progressing with optimism. With a portfolio for offshore wind farms in north-western Europe that foresees in an accumulated installed power of more than 3 gigawatt by the end of 2006, the future indeed looks bright. But will the expectations for offshore wind energy be met? Based on experience from technical and market-orientated studies on offshore wind energy (OWE), the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands ECN concludes that the growth of OWE in the next few years will mainly be hampered by insufficient policy support, rather than by technical barriers. The realisation of the first two Dutch offshore wind farms has been delayed considerably. Towards the end of 2004, the Dutch policy will shift to a concession system for the issuing of exclusive rights for plots in the North Sea. For the tendered sites surrounding the UK coast, the financial returns appear marginal. Moreover, according to market models, the incentives for offshore wind energy in Germany are insufficient for successful competition with other electricity supplies in the liberalised European market. The main technical challenges are the increase of turbine availability by improvement of turbine operation and maintenance (O&M) and a further reduction of wind farm array losses by innovation in turbine operation and farm layout. Focusing on The Netherlands, a significant upgrade of the grid is required to feed-in the Dutch goal of 6000 megawatt in 2020 successfully.
Published Version
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