Abstract
The significant growth of renewable energy production in the past decades is present mainly due to the global depletion of fossil fuel reserves. One of interesting and well developed renewable energy technologies are wind turbines which are mainly built onshore. Due to more favorable wind characteristics at sea, off shore wind power plants are an interesting and challenging option for meeting future energy demands. In particular, less turbulent wind with higher average velocity enhances energy production and reduces structural fatigue of wind energy structures. In this study, benefits and drawbacks of off shore wind turbine units and power plants are pointed out. Based on the available climate data, sea depths and existing sea traffic routes, two possible wind power plants, i.e. one with fixed and another with floating turbines, are proposed for installation in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea. Benefits for the Croatian shipbuilding industry and its economy are pointed out.
Highlights
Over the last couple of decades, the strong development of renewable energy technologies has been motivated by the global depletion of fossil fuel reserves
To the authors’ best knowledge, wind speed in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea has never been measured at open sea, this figure needs to be taken with caution
Offshore wind power plant design primarily differs from onshore wind turbine design in the complexity of subprocesses that need to be taken into account and harmonized
Summary
Over the last couple of decades, the strong development of renewable energy technologies has been motivated by the global depletion of fossil fuel reserves. Due to the nealy flat sea surface, offshore wind has some favorable properties, as for example nearly constant average velocity at hub height with less turbulence, increasing operating efficiency and reducing column and blade fatigue level, enabling the application of longer turbine blades for the same hub height. This trend has been driven by a strong ambition to exploit huge and relatively unused energy potentials, (Bilgili et al, 2011; O’Keeffe and Haggett, 2012). A comprehensive research of aerodynamics of offshore wind turbines in the vicinity on complex coastal topography is underway within the framework of the FP7-Marinet program - one of the largest offshore renewable energy research projects in history (e.g. Kozmar et al, 2014)
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