Proceedings of The Twelfth (2002) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference

Kitakyushu, Japan, May 26 –31, 2002

Copyright © 2002 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers
ISBN 1-880653-58-3 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)

Offshore Wind Energy - Review of the State-of-the-Art

Andrew R. Henderson,
Section Wind Energy, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Colin Morgan,
Garrad Hassan & Partners Ltd, Bristol, United Kingdom
Rebecca Barthelmie
Risø National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark
Bernie Smith,
John Brown Hydrocarbons Ltd, London, United Kingdom
Hans C. Sørensen,
Energi & Miljoe Undersoegelser (EMU), Copenhagen, Denmark
Bart Boesmans,
Tractebel Energy Engineering, Brussels, Belgium

offshore, which also has a number of other advantages:

ABSTRACT
After several decades of theoretical developments, desk studies,
experimental wind turbines and prototype windfarms, the first large-
scale commercial developments of offshore windfarms are now being
built. To support and accelerate this development, the European
Commission funded a project, ’Concerted Action on Offshore Wind
Energy in Europe’ (CA-OWEE), which aimed to gather, evaluate,
synthesize and distribute knowledge on all aspects of offshore wind
energy, including: offshore technology, electrical integration,
economics, environmental impacts and political aspects. The partners
are from a wide range of fields and include developers, utilities,
consultants, research institutes and universities. This paper reports on
the final conclusions of this project.
KEY WORDS: windenergy; windpower; windturbines; offshore,
review
INTRODUCTION
Offshore wind farms promise to become an important source of
energy in the near future: it is expected that within 10 years, wind parks
with a total capacity of thousands of megawatts will be installed in
European seas. This will be equivalent to several large traditional coal-
fired power stations. Plans are currently advancing for such wind parks
in Swedish, Danish, German, Dutch, Belgian, British and Irish waters
and first such park is currently being constructed at Horns Rev, off
Denmark’s western coast.
Onshore wind energy has grown enormously over the last decade
to the point where it generates more than 10% of all electricity in
certain regions (such as Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein in Germany and
Gotland in Sweden). However, this expansion has not been without
problems and the resistance to windfarm developments experienced in
Britain since the mid 1990s, is now present in other countries to a lesser
or greater extent. One solution, of avoiding land-use disputes and to
reduce the noise and visual pollution, is to move the developments
• availability of large continuous areas, suitable for major projects,
• higher wind speeds, which generally increase with distance from
the shore (Britain is an exception to this as the speed-up factor
over hills means that the best wind resources are where the
turbines are also most visible),
• less turbulence, which allows the turbines to harvest the energy
more effectively and reduces the fatigue loads on the turbine,
• lower wind-shear (i.e. the boundary layer of slower moving wind
close to the surface is thinner), thus allowing the use of shorter
towers.
But against this is the very important disadvantage of the
additional capital investment necessary, relating to:
• the more expensive marine foundations,
• the more expensive integration in to the electrical network and in
some cases a necessary increase in the capacity of weak coastal
grids,
• the more expensive installation procedures and restricted access
during construction due to weather conditions,
• limited access for O & M during operation which results in an
additional penalty of reduced turbine availability and hence
reduced output.
However the cost of wind turbines is falling and is expected to
continue doing so over the coming decade and once sufficient
experience has been gained in building offshore projects, the offshore
construction industry is likely to find similar cost-savings. Onshore
wind energy is an increasingly cost-competitive resource at a stable
price compared to conventional power generation, especially when
environmental benefits are accounted for. Hence it would seem likely
that offshore wind energy will also become competitive in time. Other
developments that are likely to support this trend are the design of
turbines optimised for the offshore environment, of greater sizes
(maybe up to 10 MW and over 125 m rotor diameter eventually) and
with greater reliability built-in. At the moment, the largest production
machines have generating capacities of 2.5 MW but machines with
power outputs of up to 5 MW are planned for production by the middle

494
of this decade. The wind turbine manufacturing industry has been
following its own exponential growth curves over the last decade of
decreasing costs by 20% and doubling the size of the largest
commercially-available turbine every three or so years.
The total wind power resources available offshore are vast and will
certainly be able to supply a significant proportion of our electricity
needs in an economic manner. Earlier studies by Garrad Hassan and
Germanischer Lloyd concluded that a large proportion of Europe’s
power could be supplied from offshore wind turbines (Germanischer
Lloyd and Garrad Hassan, 1994) (Forum for Energy and Development,
2000).
A BRIEF HISTORY
The first wind turbine to generate electricity was a traditional
wooden windmill converted by Poul la Cour in Denmark over 100
years ago. In the early part of the 20th century, there were further
experimental machines but serious developments only began with the
two oil shocks in the 1970s, when governments around the world
reacted by directing R&D money to alternative fuel sources. The early
’80s saw major developments in California and the construction of the
famous fields of hundreds of small turbines and by the end of that
decade there were 15,000 turbines with a total generating capacity of
1,500 MW in that state (Ackermann. & Söder, 2000). The stabilising
of the oil price in the '80s and resulting reductions in the state subsidies
for windpower, meant that purchases from the crucial American market
dried up and many wind turbine companies withdrew from the field or
went bankrupt. An exception was in Denmark, where government
support meant that the knowledge base was not dissolved and the
companies there were able to quickly respond when wind energy's
fortunes recovered once more in the early '90s, to the point where they
and their partners dominate the market today. It should be pointed out
that the foundations of renewable energy's fortunes are today based on
the solid necessity of alleviating climate change and increased energy
autonomy rather than the fickle nature of oil prices.
1,200
1,000
Average Turbine Size
800
[kW]
600
400
200
0 0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Year
Average Turbine Size Worldwide Installed Capacity
Fig. 1: Size & Installation Trends (BWEA 2001)
Currently there is a total installed capacity of approximately
24GW on land and over the last three years, the annual installation rate
has reached 4GW/annum. The average rating of turbines being
installed is now approaching 1MW per unit internationally, Fig. 1.
With the resulting economies of scale, wind energy now competes on
price with the traditional generators, such as coal and nuclear, in areas
of rich wind resources.
OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY TODAY
Although the challenges of building large offshore windfarms will
be considerable, many of the problems relating to the turbine will have
previously been faced on-land, and relating to the support structure, by
the offshore and coastal engineering industries. The key point will be
to know how to integrate these two technologies, as it is all too easy for
each branch of engineering to underestimate the complexities in the
other. In fact, the combination is not always equal to the sum of the
parts, both in a beneficial and a detrimental sense, hence a cost-saving
opportunities may be missed and unexpected problems may be
encountered during construction and operation. Avoiding unnecessary
costs is especially important now when offshore wind energy aims at
becoming competitive on price with traditional energy sources.
Offshore Wind Energy Technology
The wind turbines being used in current offshore projects tend to
be machines designed for land-use but with modifications, such as a
larger generator, a higher instrumentation specification and component
redundancy, particularly of electrical systems. If the market expands as
expected, machines designed for optimised performance offshore will
be developed and utilised but it is not certain how they will look. On
one hand, the requirements from an offshore machine differ from those
on land, however the requirement for high reliability would suggest the
use of well-proven turbines. Modifications may include:
• larger machines, up to 5 MW or 10 MW,
• faster rotational speeds than on land, where noise restrictions
generally mean that the turbine operates slightly below optimum
speed,
• larger generators for a specific rotor size, to enable the additionally
available energy to be efficiently harvested,
• high voltage generation, also possible in DC instead of AC,
in the longer term, downwind machines with flexible blades or
multiple rotors might become an option, but engineering effort will be
needed to achieve the theoretical potential.
6,000
Support structure: The current design philosophy for wind farms
Annual Installed Capacity
5,000 in water depths up to 20 m is based on the monopile, except in the
shallowest waters (up to 5 m) where gravity base structures have been
4,000 preferred, Fig. 2. The installation methodology (driving, drilling or
combination) will depend on soil properties and water depth. For
[MW]
3,000 deeper waters, tripod support structures are being considered but the
optimum solution is not yet certain and may well be a concept currently
2,000 being brought into the field by offshore and coastal engineering
specialists.
1,000
Monopile Braced / Gravity Base
Tripod Structure (GBS)
Fig. 2: Types of Support Structures for Offshore Wind Turbines
Grid Integration, Energy Supply & Financing
Integrating large offshore windfarms into the electricity grid may
pose problems if the coastal network is weak and more advanced power
control systems may be used to conform with grid connection
requirements. Until now, electrical power was largely supplied by
495
large centralised stations, which delivered a predictable power output to Distance
the consumers, adapted to varying demand patterns. If the penetration Installed Power Water
Location Year from
(MW) Depth
of wind energy, with an inherent stochastic behaviour, increases, Shore
additional conventional reserve power may be required to ensure the Tunø Knob 10 x 0.5 = 5;
balance between production and consumption.. This may provide 1995 3-5 m 6 km
(DK) Vestas
opportunities for the application of new technologies for electricity 28 x 0.6 = 16.8;
storage combined with more reliable models for predicting fluctuations Dronten, (NL) 1996 5m 20 m
Nordtank
from wind energy over longer periods. Bockstigen 5 x 0.5 = 2.5;
The coming decade is likely to see the expansion of several 1998 6m 3 km
Valar, (SE) WindWorld
previously non-conventional electricity generation technologies, Middelgrunden 20 x 2 = 40;
including micro-generation (Economist, 2000). Previously, grid 2000 3-6 m 3 km
(DK) Bonus
operators had to deal with stochastic variation of the power demand 7 x 1.425 = 10; 7-10
only but wind and some other renewables as well as micro generation Utgrunden (SE) 2000 8 km
Enron m
introduce stochastic variation into the supply as well. Up to a fairly
Blyth (UK) 2000 2 x 2 = 4; Vestas 8m 800m
high penetration level into the national supply (in the order of 10%), the
power can generally be absorbed without too much difficulty, as in Yttre Stengrund 5 x 2 NEG Micon
2001 6-10m 5km
principal, stochastic mismatch is the same problem, whichever side it (SE) = 10
originates from. Beyond that, non-dispatchable generators pay a price
penalty, which can be reduced by using wind-forecasting to predict the Bockstigen-Valor 

output further in advance or by matching with dispatchable but limited Yttre Stengrund

sources of power, such as hydro-electric.  Blyth
Tunø Knob   Utgrunden
Middelgrunden
Resources and Economics  Vindeby

The resources available across the offshore regions of Europe are

vast, particularly in Northern Europe, and are in theory capable of
Lely 
supplying all electrical needs of Europe (though currently at an
uneconomical price). In practice, offshore wind energy could become a
Dronten
major source of energy for several countries at a competitive price in
Size of Dot represents Windfarm Capacity
the medium term.
Size of Font represents Windturbine Size:
So far, all offshore windfarms have been built in seas off north
• Small Font = older, smaller machines
European coasts, where there are large flat and shallow regions a short
• Large Font = recent MW machines
distance away from the coast and hence suitable for development. The
continental shelf around much of the Mediterranean Sea falls off much Fig. 3: Location of Existing Windfarms
faster leaving little space for bottom-mounted windfarm developments
and hence limited prospects for offshore Windenergy unless floating Electricity production has generally exceeded expectations and
wind energy can overcome its current large cost disadvantage costs have steadily fallen to the point where offshore wind energy is
(Henderson, 2002). competitive on price with many of the current onshore developments.
Fig. 4 illustrates this trend for a sample of studies and actual projects.
Activities and Prospects
18
To date, nine small and medium sized offshore windfarms have
been built (the first offshore plant consisted of a single wind turbine 16
energy costs [ECUct / kWh]

and was abandoned after a fire) and the main details are summarised in
Table I with the locations indicated in Fig. 3. The first and the 14
currently largest offshore windfarms are at Vindeby (1993) and
12
Middelgrunden (40 MW) respectively, both being located in Denmark.
As can be seen in Fig. 3, all realised projects to-date have been within 10 Vindeby, DK
Europe, however there has been a recent resurgence of research and Bockstigen-
Valar, SE Blyth, UK
resource prediction activities in both Japan (Kogaki, Matsumiya, 8
Lely, NL
Ushiyama, Nagai, Higashino, Iwasaki, Nakao and Ogawa, 2001) and
the United States (Manwell, Rogers and McGowan, 2001). 6
Tuno Knob, DK
4
Table I: Existing Offshore Windfarms (based on Barthelmie, 1998) Middelgrunden, DK
2
Distance
Installed Power Water 0
Location Year from
(MW) Depth 1990 1995 2000
Shore
1991 1 x 0.22 studies projects reference year of study or project
Nogersund (SE) 7m 250 m
(-98) Windworld Fig. 4: Reduction in Cost (Kühn et al, 1998) (Sørensen et al 2000)
11 x 0.45 = 4.95;
Vindeby (DK) 1991 3-5 m 1.5 km
Bonus Two years ago (2000), three windfarms were built, all using MW
Medemblik 4 x 0.5 = 2; 5-10 sized turbines for the first time in the offshore environment, and one, at
1994 0.75 km
(NL) NedWind m Blyth, which is in a location facing the northern North Sea, one of the
most hostile in Europe, and is being accompanied by an extensive

496
measurement programme. Last year (2001) a single windfarm was technologies being developed for the European projects hence
built in Swedish waters, again with megawatt size turbines, with the developments here are likely to be in a longer timeframe (Kogaki,
result that four wind-turbine manufacturers now experience of placing Matsumiya, Ushiyama, Nagai, Higashino, Iwasaki, Nakao and Ogawa,
and operating large-scale turbines in the offshore environment. 2001). The United States and Canada should also see several offshore
wind energy developments within this decade, with the Massachusetts
Currently there are plans for numerous large offshore windfarms, a coast being a likely location (Manwell, Rogers and McGowan, 2001).
list is of some is given in Table II and the European locations are
shown in Fig. 5. Note that at this time, the situation is very dynamic Social Acceptance, Environmental Impact & Politics
with details of new plans being published frequently, hence this list
cannot claim to be exhaustive. Many countries have set ambitious The experiences from current offshore projects indicate that the
targets for developing thousands of megawatts in offshore wind energy social acceptance is closely connected to the environmental impacts.
projects within the next decades. The public concern is specially related to the impacts on birds and the
visual impact and although the impacts will change somewhat, when
Table II: List of Some of the Planned Offshore Windfarms moving further offshore, it is crucial that aspects like bird migration
paths and the visual impact of offshore wind turbines in an otherwise
Location Year Installed Power (MW) structureless landscape are taking seriously already from the planning
80 x 2MW Vestas V66 phase.
Horns Rev (DK) 2002
= 160 The experience with Middelgrunden windfarm makes an
Lillegrunden (SE) 2002 63 Enercon interesting example; the initially proposed "efficient" rectangular layout
Klasården (SE) 2002 42 NEG-Micon was replaced by a gracefully curve following consultations, this has
Arklow Bank (EI) 2002 60 helped the windfarm to become a tourist attraction in Copenhagen and
Samsø (DK) 2002 25 avoid excessive criticism in spite of the prominent visibility from many
Egmond (NL) 2003 100 locations in the city, including the royal palace.
Rødsand (DK) 2003 158.4 Furthermore, potential effects on fish, marine mammals, fauna and
North Hoyle (UK) 2003 75 benthos need to be investigated, as the impacts from large scale
Scroby Sands (UK) 2003 76 offshore wind farms (e.g. sound emissions and electromagnetic fields
Kentish Flats (UK) 2003 60 from underwater cables) are currently relatively unknown.
The effect from wind turbines on radar systems is also an
Q7 (NL) 2003 120
important issue that is currently poorly understood, and must be dealt
Borkum-West (DE) 2003 60
with both in generic studies and in site-specific pre-investigations
Læsø Syd (DK) 2003 150
(Environmental Impact Assessments). These investigations and the
Wenduine (BE) 2003/4 100 planning process prior to large scale offshore projects should be as
Raan (BE) 2003/4 100 open as possible and allow local involvement.
%LDáRJyUD3/ 2004 61 The role that public opinion plays should not be forgotten this
Adlergrund (DE) 2004 480 time; a very important difference between the countries where onshore
Omø Stålgrunde (DK) 2004 150 wind energy has become widespread and where it has not become
8 other sites in the (UK) 2004/5 up to 1,350 total successful is in public support. Care should be taken that the detractors
Beltsee (DE) 2005 249 are not able to swing public opinion against offshore wind energy in
Nantucket Island (USA) 2005 425 those countries as well.
Borkum-West (DE) 2005 1040
Cabo de Trafalgar (SP) 2005 100 x 2 = 200
Gedser (DK) 2006 150 CONCERTED ACTION ON OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY IN
Butendiek (DE) 2006 240 EUROPE
Gedser (DK) 2006 150
Nai Kun (CAN) 2004/8 700 The objectives of the project "Concerted Action on Offshore Wind
Energy in Europe" [CA-OWEE] were to define the current state of the
art of offshore wind energy in Europe through gathering and evaluation
  of information from across Europe and to disseminate the resulting
 knowledge to all interested, in order to help stimulate the development
 
 
Samsø 
of the industry. The project was funded by the European Commission
 
Horns Rev


Rødsand 
and was completed at the end of last year (2001). The knowledge


   


 
Arklow Bank gathered is freely available through an internet site,
 
Borkum-West
www.offshorewindenergy.org and a printed report.
 North Hoyle
 Egmond
Scroby SandsQ7
 
The project focused on the large scale exploitation of the offshore
  wind resource through the use of very large wind turbines with

Kentish Flats  Wenduine improved performance, reliability and reduced environmental impacts.
The objective of the project was to collect the accumulated knowledge
 Size of Dot represents Windfarm Capacity about offshore wind energy from all over Europe, evaluate and
Light-colour represents 2nd future phase summarise this knowledge and distribute it to all who can benefit. In
addition, a report has been produced for the Commission with
Fig. 5: Locations of Some of the Planned Offshore Windfarms recommendations for which actions are needed to ensure that the
development of offshore wind energy continues to expand and becomes
In Japan, studies have shown that the potential resource is a major source of power in the coming century. The project was
significant, however much of this is in waters too deep for the completed at the end of December 2001 and the final report is available

497
over the internet at the project dissemination site: 1JA, Tel 020 7402 7102, http://www.britishwindenergy.co.uk/.
www.offshorewindenergy.org. The Economist, (2000), The dawn of micropower, Aug 5th 2000.
Forum for Energy and Development (2000), “Windforce 10” A
This paper summarises the conclusions of this project, covering blueprint to achieve 10% of the world’s electricity from wind
the main technologies, activities, issues, challenges and power by 2020, www.inforse.org.
recommendations for RTD support relating to the development of Germanischer Lloyd and Garrad Hassan (1994), Study of offshore wind
offshore wind energy in Europe thus giving a summary of the state of energy in the EC, ETSU Report W/35/00250 and Publ. Verlag
the art of this rapidly expanding field of engineering. Natürliche Energie JOUR 0072, both 1994.
Kühn M, Ferguson M.C., Göransson B., Cockerill T.T., Harrison R.,
This project divided offshore wind energy into five clusters of Harland L.A., Vugts J.H., Wiecherink R., (1998), ‘Opti-OWECS;
subjects, reviewed the recent history and summarised the current state Structural an Economic Optimisation of Bottom Mounted Offshore
of affairs, relating to: Wind Energy Convertors’, JOULE III project, Delft University of
• offshore technology, of the wind turbines and the support Technology, Vols. 0-5, Delft, Netherlands, August 1998.
structures, Henderson, A. R., Leutz, R., Fujii, T. (2002), Potential for Floating
• grid integration, energy supply and financing, Offshore Wind Energy in Japanese Waters, ISOPE Conference
• resources and economics, (submitted)
• activities and prospects, Kogaki, T., Matsumiya, H., Ushiyama, I., Nagai, H., Higashino, M.,
• social acceptance, environmental impact & politics. Iwasaki, N., Nakao, T., Ogawa, S., Prospect of Offshore Wind
Energy Development in Japan, European Special Topic Conference
The conclusions from these surveys were then used to develop on Offshore Wind Energy, Brussels, December 2001.
recommendations for the future RTD strategy for Europe. Manwell, J.F., Rogers, A., McGowan, J.G., Assessment of the
Massachusetts Offshore Wind Energy Resource, European Wind
The project’s 17 partners came from 13 countries, thus covering Energy Conference, Copenhagen, July 2001.
the majority of the European Community’s coastline. The partners Sørensen, H. C., Larsen, J.H., Olsen, F.A., Svenson, J., Hansen, S.R.,
covered a broad range of expertise and included developers, utilities, (2000), Middelgrunden 40 MW offshore wind farm, a prestudy for
consultants, research institutes and universities: the Danish offshore 750 mw wind program, ISOPE Conference
• Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Seattle.
• Garrad Hassan & Partners, United Kingdom
• Kvaerner Oil & Gas, United Kingdom
• Energi & Miljoe Undersoegelser (EMU), Denmark
• Risø National Laboratory, Denmark
• Tractebel Energy Engineering, Belgium
• CIEMAT, Spain
• CRES, Greece
• Deutsches Windenergie-Institut (DEWI), Germany
• Germanischer Lloyd, Germany
• ECN, The Netherlands
• Espace Eolien Developpement (EED), France
• ENEA, Italy
• University College Cork, Ireland
• Vindkompaniet i Hemse AB, Sweden
• VTT, Finland
• Baltic Energy Conservation Agency (BAPE), Poland

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions made by

all partners in the CA-OWEE project to this paper and to the final
report.

The project Concerted Action on Offshore Wind Energy in Europe

[CA-OWEE] was funded by the European Commission under contract
number NNE5-1999-00562.

REFERENCES
Ackermann, T. & Söder L., (2000), Wind energy technology and
current status: a review, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews,
Vol. 4, 2000.
Barthelmie, R. (1998), A Brief Review of Offshore Wind Energy
Activity in the 1990's, Wind Engineering, Vol. 22, No. 6, p 265,
1998.
British Wind Energy Association (2001), 26 Spring Street, London W2

498