Platform Optimization and Cost Analysis in a Floating Offshore Wind Farm

Alberto Ghigo,Giuliana Mattiazzo,Giovanni Bracco,Riccardo Caradonna,Lorenzo Cottura

doi:10.3390/jmse8110835

Alberto Ghigo, Giuliana Mattiazzo + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8110835

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Abstract

Floating offshore wind represents a new frontier of renewable energies. The absence of a fixed structure allows exploiting wind potential in deep seas, like the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, characterized by high availability and wind potential. However, a floating offshore wind system, which includes an offshore turbine, floating platform, moorings, anchors, and electrical system, requires very high capital investments: one of the most relevant cost items is the floating substructure. This work focuses on the choice of a floating platform that minimizes the global weight, in order to reduce the material cost, but ensuring buoyancy and static stability. Subsequently, the optimized platform is used to define a wind farm located near the island of Pantelleria, Italy in order to meet the island’s electricity needs. A sensitivity analysis to estimate the Levelized Cost Of Energy is presented, analyzing the parameters that influence it most, like Capacity Factor, Weighted Average Capital Cost (WACC) and number of wind turbines.

Highlights

Wind energy is one of the most promising renewable sources of the last decade
Wind is the protagonist in replacing traditional energy sources such as gas, oil, and coal, in order to reduce polluting and greenhouse gas emissions, based on the provisions of the 2015 Paris Agreement
The main results of the iterative process generated by genetic algorithm is reported in the following pictures

Summary

Introduction

Wind energy is one of the most promising renewable sources of the last decade. The ample availability, large market potential, and cost competitiveness of the wind resource have allowed consistent technological development, in order to exploit its energy potential. Wind is the protagonist in replacing traditional energy sources such as gas, oil, and coal, in order to reduce polluting and greenhouse gas emissions, based on the provisions of the 2015 Paris Agreement. With almost 417 TWh of energy generated in 2019, wind energy made it possible to meet 15% of European electrical energy needs [1]. All this is part of the European Union’s ambitious project, called the Green New Deal, which by supporting the transition to the intensive use of renewable sources, utilizes the process of decarbonization and the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in Europe

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