46 renewable energy focus January/February 2009

EU wind focus

Harnessing geography for European windWHAT’S THE BEST PLACE FOR A WIND FARM? NOT JUST ON ANY OLD

HILLSIDE OR “SOMEWHERE OFFSHORE”. THE CONCEPT OF LOCATION

INTELLIGENCE IS PLAYING A GROWING ROLE IN THE PLANNING, DESIGN

AND SITING OF EUROPEAN WIND FARMS, SAYS JUSTIN SAUNDERS. Justin Saunders

When the UK government approved the giant

750 MW Gwynt y Mor wind farm off the coast

of Llandudno, North Wales, in December

2008, key considerations about the exact

location included the distance from the shore

and how the visual impact from points along

the coast could be minimised.

The developers had worked within a Govern-

ment-set “strategic area”, carrying out studies

and consultations to map the precise posi-

tions of turbines, and to show how they

would affect visibility, marine navigation,

ecology and fishing activities.

Similarly, the environmental statement

behind plans for the forthcoming 152-turbine

onshore farm at Clyde in south Lanarkshire,

Scotland, involved the graphical representa-

tion of physical survey results shown against

customised map data. Consultants created a

series of 3D visualisations, photomontages,

ZTVs (zones of theoretical visibility) and

digital terrain and elevation models that accu-

rately predicted how the farm would appear.

And another example can be seen in north-

west Portugal, where the December 2008

commissioning of the 240MW farm at Ventom-

inho, also required a wide array of geographic

assessments to be carried out during design

and construction. Complex logistical issues

had to be tackled to connect five sub-farms

across a 30km zone with a single point of

connection to the electricity grid.

Essentially, whether you call it a map or a “spatial context”, the point of using geographic information is to help extract value from

data and provide a tangible return on investment. A mapping interface can inform vital decisions by showing information in a

graphical form that can never be achieved by tables of figures or text alone.

renewable energy focus January/February 2009 47

EU wind focus/location intelligence

Location intelligence

Deciding where to site a wind farm involves

a range of criteria that can be termed “loca-

tion intelligence”. More than simply a map,

location intelligence concerns the ability to

process, manage and share different kinds

of information relating to a particular point

or wider geographic area. The concept has

evolved from the rather specialist preserve

known as geographic information systems

or GIS. These are essentially sets of software

tools working together to create, manipulate

and present digital map data on screen.

In a GIS that supports a site location map for a

proposed wind farm, additional statistical data

will typically be imported as files from a spread-

sheet to a server-based database system. A

statistical program then helps to categorise data

inputs and define the geographic area parame-

ters. This can help developers compare different

turbine positions in relation to wind speed, grid

capacity, power lines, visual intrusion and other

factors. Finding the optimum position for a

turbine can improve the efficiency of energy

production and protect against unnecessary

costs. That goes for both single turbines and

industrial-scale farms whether on- or offshore.

Onshore, mapping at a scale of 1:50,000 is ideal

for looking at the surrounding geographic

context of a proposed development, including

road infrastructure. Closer in, scales higher

than 1:25,000 offer more detail, with individual

building outlines, critical access routes and

field boundaries coming into view. Preliminary

site investigation must then take into account

even more local factors such as slopes, lines

of sight, ridge lines and gradients. These are

contained in digital surface and terrain models,

3D elevation data and high-resolution aerial

imagery that matches underlying mapping

through a process called orthorectification.

Wind power developers across the EU have

for years bemoaned the lack of a coherent

grid strategy for transferring power between

different Member States; many of the grids are

owned by vertically-integrated power players,

and this inevitably leads to an unfair advantage

when it comes to allowing wind power onto a

grid. According to the European Wind Energy

Association’s (EWEA) Christian Kjaer, the grid is

a monopoly and should be regulated as such,

because “if you own production, and if you own

grid assets within the same Corporate structure,

due to the nature of the whole electricity market

the grid is a wonderful way of optimising profits -

but it’s not a very market-friendly way”.

However, better news might be at hand, and

EWEA themselves have welcomed the key role

given to offshore wind energy in the European

Commission’s Strategic Energy Review (SER)

published late in 2008.

The review includes a commitment to publish

a blueprint for a North Sea offshore grid. With

1,486 MW of capacity currently installed offshore

and 30,882 MW more capacity planned by 2015,

investor interest is high, but the sector needs

a European legislative framework, including a

dedicated offshore grid to reach its full potential.

Although nine countries - one-third of the EU

Member States - now have operational offshore

wind farms, the offshore electricity infrastructure

needs to be vastly improved and the overall

electricity grid updated and reinforced. Crucially,

the European Commission gives one of its aims

in the Strategic Energy Review as to “ensure

the development of the grid to permit the

achievement of the EU’s renewable energy

objectives”.

“An offshore grid and increased interconnector

capacity will allow large amounts of offshore

wind energy to be integrated into the electricity

network, while improving the functioning of the

internal electricity market” Kjaer added.

A section of the SER is devoted to the importance

of renewables. It gives the Commission’s

intention to identify and tackle barriers to their

development, starting with the tabling of a

communication entitled “Overcoming barriers

to Renewable Energy in the EU” in 2010. This

decision demonstrates that the Commission

is aware of the need to reduce obstacles and

is actively taking steps to do so. The SER will

provide the basis for an Energy Action Plan,

which should be adopted at the Spring Council

2010 and form the new EU energy policy.

Commercial grid operator seizes the moment

Meanwhile Imera Ltd, a Dublin-based asset

development company specialising in subsea

power interconnectors and power transmission

grids, has received EU approval for its first

interconnectors linking Ireland and the UK.

The EU approval came in January 2009 as an EU

Exemption for Third Party Access on Imera’s East

West Interconnector (Ireland -UK). According

to Grace Samodal, senior VP, commercial and

trading, at Imera, “This exemption allows us to

operate on a merchant basis.”

At present, Imera holds five licences to build,

own, and operate interconnectors and is actively

developing interconnectors between Ireland

and the UK, France and the UK, and Belgium and

the UK. These projects form the foundation for

EuropaGrid.

The company is now set to build the North

Sea and Atlantic electricity grids, connecting

key markets and offshore wind farms as the

foundation of a pan-European offshore electricity

network. The company claims that EuropaGrid

will enable the development of a true European

integrated power market and greatly enhance

security of electricity supply.

Once installed, EuropaGrid will consist of a

large grid of sub-sea AC and DC cables. These

will connect Ireland with the UK and France

and the UK with France and Belgium. Future

interconnector projects will connect other

countries in Europe and interconnectors will be

linked to form a “mesh” or a grid.

Connections to this grid for large offshore wind

projects will be provided in order to connect all

major wind projects and national transmission

systems in Europe.

Rory O’Neill, Imera’s ceo, said, “there are two main

factors driving the development of the North Sea

Grid – the EU’s call for increased interconnection

across Europe as a priority issue, and its target

of 20% of its required energy from renewable

sources by 2020. Imera’s EuropaGrid will not only

fast-track increased cross-border interconnection

in Europe, but also enable enormous growth in

renewable generation developments.”

Imera’s approach is expected to allow electricity

produced from offshore wind generation to be

traded in the single electricity market. It is also

said to be the most efficient way of building

interconnectors and transmission connections for

offshore generators as it eliminates duplication

and unused capacity on sub-sea cables.

And O’Neill added, “because we are a private

company, we can build networks faster and

cheaper than most regulated organisations. We

also have access to the largest fleet of specialised

cable-laying vessels and marine engineering

expertise through our parent company,

Oceanteam.”

Imera is currently raising over €100M in

investment to finance the development of the

first phase of EuropaGrid.

Location, location, location – the need for better grid access

48 renewable energy focus January/February 2009

EU wind focus/location intelligence

Precise geographic data can be used to:

■ Help develop accurate analyses;

■ Present site plans for the official planning

approval process;

■ Deliver ongoing project management;

■ Provide contextual information to enable

insurers to assess risk and provide cover

for the turbine machinery, connections

and cabling;

■ Mapping can also show noise contours

around a potential site to help influence

design and address any abatement needs.

Bespoke web services are enabling users to

embed mapping components directly into

their database applications, thus replacing

shipments of off-the-shelf data stacks that

require onward processing.

This trend towards web-based location intel-

ligence is opening up engineering-grade data

for mainstream use that was once the sole

domain of geographic technologists.

Benefits of GIS

GIS as a technical subject, far from being

the preserve of experts, is easy-to-use, and

its practical applications are likely to benefit

sectors such as the wind power industry.

In the construction phase of an offshore

farm, for example, GIS can help engineers

and project managers to monitor and track

activities as they happen on and under the

sea. This can be vital for ensuring the health

and safety of personnel and the protection of

kit and infrastructure assets.

And combining GIS and the internet allows

different layers of information to be fed in

to multiple workstations and mobile units,

giving different users an up-to-date picture of

weather conditions, wind speed, boat move-

ments, wave heights and so on. All the infor-

mation is captured, referenced, connected,

analysed and stored online.

In Germany, the renewables industry has long

recognised the importance of location to the

viability and efficiency of wind farms. The

push to offshore generation is in part down

to a lack of suitable land for onshore develop-

ments and the influence of stricter planning

requirements.

On the research side, the Deutsche Energie-

Agentur (dena), has used geographic infor-

mation in a study of how best to integrate

on- and off-shore grid capacity. One of the

considerations was the need to compensate

for the sizeable extra cost of laying founda-

tions and grid connections for the growing

number of offshore turbines.

Dena believes it is necessary to identify pilot

zones in relatively shallow waters within 50km

of the coast and to lay bundled cables into an

expanded onshore grid. The agency says laying

many parallel cables through sensitive ecolog-

ical areas such as the Wadden Sea would create

a serious risk to the undersea environment.

Belgium provides another national case study of

the use of location intelligence. There, succes-

sive Government directives on wind farming

have also laid down criteria for the selection of

zoning, and hence emphasised the benefits of

accurate geographic information.

The European Wind Atlas – and beyond

As with other EU countries, Belgium looked to

the European Wind Atlas as a starting point for

assessing wind energy applications. This atlas

was first published in hard copy in 1989. It was

intended as a comprehensive data bank of the

wind climate across Europe, containing statis-

tics from more than 200 weather stations and a

software pack for producing regional charts of

wind speed and directions.

Researchers at the University of Brussels, acting

on their agreed national criteria, then published

an inventory of suitable locations based on

regional zoning maps. This phase considered

issues such as planning and building regula-

tions and further investigations into topo-

graphic and environmental issues. The next step

was to work with utility companies to examine

the capacity of the grid and cost of connecting

with preferred locations. The study produced a

“capacity map” to help compute the bulk cost of

wind-generated electricity.

The growth of professional standard mapping

in the wind farm sector has now been strength-

ened by advances in surveying that make it

possible to measure and portray the lay of

the land in centimetric detail so that the most

optimal positions for power facilities can be

found. Laser-driven airborne techniques, aerial

photography and satellite imagery are central

to the mix, along with ground-based data

capture fixed with GPS. All of this can sit within

a common geographic reference framework

for ease of sharing and associating data. An

example of such a framework is OS MasterMap

in Great Britain.

At the same time, the trend towards online

delivery and web services means developers

can have a fully hosted “location solution”

brought direct to the desktop rather than

Consultants create a series of 3D visualisations, photomontages, ZTVs (zones of theoretical visibility) and digital terrain (pictured)

and elevation models, and use them to accurately predict how wind farms appear on the landscape.

renewable energy focus January/February 2009 49

EU wind focus/location intelligence

just a data feed. This has benefits in data

storage, copyright management and time and

cost savings. Hosted services such as eMap-

Site provide multiple search criteria and the

means of exporting data in different formats

for CAD, GIS and graphics software.

Looking ahead, it is likely that more and more

site projects will be managed through dedi-

cated web resources, just as in other land and

property sectors that use advanced mapping

solutions. In larger wind energy construction

projects, for example, authorised consultants

and contractors will increasingly be given

appropriate tiers of access to site plans and

other map data through secure log-ins to

assist with asset management, health and

safety, information storage and analysis.

One of the core considerations going forward

will be the need to strike the right balance

between cutting carbon emissions overall

and sustaining biodiversity around specific

site locations. In the UK, guidance produced

by the British Wind Energy Association and

nature conservation bodies recognises the

potential benefits of wind energy as long as

the “right development is in the right loca-

tion”. In this regard, geographic boundary

analysis can help to ensure wind farms do

not cause adverse effects on the integrity of

nature reserves, Special Areas of Conservation

or Sites of Special Scientific interest.

European and national legislation also

governs the protection of plants and animal

species through the mapping of bird migra-

tion routes, local flight paths, foraging areas

and cliff, headland, valley, ridge and other

habitats. When adjacent wind farms are

proposed, geographic information can help to

show the wider cumulative impacts on biodi-

versity through scenario models.

Return on investment

Essentially, whether you call it a map or a

“spatial context”, the point of using geographic

information is to help extract value from data

and provide a tangible return on investment.

A mapping interface can inform vital deci-

sions by showing information in a graphical

form that can never be achieved by tables of

figures or text alone. For example, viewing a

fly-around animation built with geographic

co-ordinates, 3D visualisation tools and topo-

graphic and elevation mapping can help bring

a proposed development to life on screen –

ideal for presentations, planning applications

and reports. The geographic context can help

clarify the development proposition to stake-

holders and allow engineers to iterate turbine

position in response to wind models, accessi-

bility, surface geology and visual impact.

A key challenge for map data providers: to

work with consultancies and wind energy

companies to continue to enhance data

quality and functionality.

Solutions should be available in industry-

standard development environments such as

Javascript and use internationally recognised

protocols such as XML (eXtensible Markup

Language), WMS (Web Map Service) and WFS

(Web Feature Service). The requirements of

application developers and solution providers

are best served through a suite of accessible,

interoperable web services that adhere to

these standards. For the end user, the watch-

words are accuracy, cost-effectiveness and

ease-of-use.

UK offshore boost to move forward

About the author

Justin Saunders is co-founder and technical director of the UK mapping provider, eMapSite (http://www.emapsite.com/renewables), and a member of the British Wind Energy Association (http://www.bwea.com).

The UK Government recently concluded its study on locations for future

offshore energy developments, identifying scope for between 5,000 and

7,000 more offshore wind turbines. The conclusion of the UK Offshore Energy

Strategic Environmental Assessment states that “there are no overriding

environmental considerations to prevent the achievement of the offshore...

wind elements of the programme”.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change minister Ed Miliband said in a

statement that “in terms of electricity, offshore wind power could potentially

make the single biggest contribution to our 2020 renewable energy target”.

Renewable energy is central to the UK Government’s objectives to secure

diverse energy supply and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by

2050. The Government has set a target to generate 10% of the UK’s electricity

supply from renewable sources by 2010. With onshore wind farms already

making a considerable contribution in the UK, the new horizon for larger scale

development lies offshore.

Offshore wind is a new activity for The Crown Estate – the body which owns

the coastline around the UK - and areas of seabed have already been made

available through two rounds of previous development since 2000. A third

round of development is now underway (see image), with 96 ‘entities’ having

expressed an interest in developing sites.

Developers that registered have been invited to bid for one or more of 9

development zones identified through the Marine Resource System by The

Crown Estate. Successful bidders will have exclusive rights to develop wind

farms in specified Zones, in partnership with The Crown Estate.

It is hoped that development of Round 3 zones will lead to 25 GW of wind

power in by 2020, following around 7.2 GW resulting from the earlier rounds.