The Offshore Wind Accelerator is a unique collaboration between the Carbon Trust and nine international energy companies with licences to develop 77% of the UK’s offshore wind capacity

Offshore Wind Accelerator Newsletter

Contacts Carbon Trust

Breanne Gellatly, Jan Matthiesen

DONG Energy Jørn

Scharling Holm

E.ON Jörgen Bodin, Mar-

tin Lindholm

Mainstream Bernard

Casey, Cameron Smith

RWE Innogy Aidan

Marchand, Friedrich

Koch ScottishPower

Renewables Lynne

Bryceland, Christopher

Leach

SSE Renewables Sol

Judah, Hamish Oag

Statkraft Elly Karlsen,

Klaus Udesen

Statoil Eirik Byklum, Stein Trygve Briskeby

Vattenfall Jens Madsen,

Andy Paine

Offshore Wind Accelerator: Collaborative RD&D that aims to reduce the cost of energy by 10%

April 2014 Issue 8 Page 1

Editorial

The last OWA newsletter was issued in March 2013, and it’s been a

testing time for the

industry over the last year. There is more clarity about EMR, but the economics of a number of offshore wind projects now look challenging,

especially for utilities with struggling balance sheets.

What is clear is that cost reduction is more important than

ever, and innovation

is critical to deliver it. There have been a number of key successes from OWA in the last year, but the industry needs to

continue to work together to drive down costs.

In January 2014, an

agreement was reached

to demonstrate the first

OWA foundation with a

turbine. DONG Energy

will be installing the

suction bucket jacket in

Germany in Q3 2014,

supporting a Siemens

3.6MW turbine. The

design is inspired by

OWA foundation

competition finalist SPT

Offshore. The suction

bucket jacket is

designed for serial

fabrication, with

significant modularity and standard sections.

It should be faster and

less weather sensitive to

install than other

foundations because it

The OWA was set up in

2008, initially as an 18-

month pilot involving

five energy companies.

In 2010, the

OWA members agree to extend by 2-years to 30 June 2016

programme was

extended for a further 4

years to 30 June 2014,

and the membership

grew first to eight then

DONG suction bucket jacket

Image: DONG 2014

to nine members.

Carbon Trust is

delighted to announce

that in January 2014, all

nine OWA members

OWA foundation and turbine demonstrator: the suction bucket jacket

uses three suction

buckets. The

demonstration should

be the first of three

novel foundation

demonstrations

supported by the

Carbon Trust and six

OWA members –

DONG Energy, E.ON,

Mainstream Renewable

Power, ScottishPower

Renewables, Statkraft

and Statoil. Hopefully

demonstrations of

Universal Foundation

and Keystone will follow

in 2015 and 2016.

In Spring 2013, the

OWA partners, The

Crown Estate, Marine

Scotland and DECC

approached the Carbon

Trust to manage the

Offshore Renewables Joint

Industry Programme

(ORJIP) in association

with OWA. The aim of

ORJIP is to improve the

understanding of the

environmental impacts

from offshore wind, to

reduce the risk of

consenting, and in

addition to the 9 OWA

partners, includes 6

further partners,

Centrica, EDF, EDPR,

Eneco, Fluor, Repsol

and Siemens. The first

project kicked off in

March 2014, is aimed at

better understanding

the collision risk of

marine bird by

cataloguing behaviour

exercised an option to

extend OWA by a

further two-years.

This will allow more

within and around a

wind farm. The findings

from the project will

feed into collision risk

models and includes a

2yr monitoring phase,

to start in June 2014 at

Vattenfall’s Thanet wind

farm using cameras,

radar and aerial

photography.

OWA to tackle environmental issues through ‘ORJIP’

The Offshore Wind Accelerator is a unique collaboration between the Carbon Trust and nine international energy companies with licences to develop 77% of the UK’s offshore wind capacity

Page 2 • Issue 8 • April 2014 Offshore Wind Accelerator Newsletter

Access systems Sea trials As part of OWA, a set of vessel

sea trial procedures have been

developed to quantify the

performance of vessels and

transfer systems using

performance plots (p-plots).

Similar to Dynamic Positioning

plots, p-plots indicate the

performance envelope for

vessels depending on the sea

height, wave height and wave

period. Sea trials were

undertaken for the MOTS

transfer system and the

MaXccess transfer system in

summer 2013, and lessons

from these trials have led to a

need to further develop

streamlined sea trial

procedures that will be faster

to execute and build on

numerical and tank testing

results.

Four new sea trials are planned

for 2014 by RWE Innogy and

Vattenfall – North Sea Logistics

Discovery, Iceni Victory,

Turbine Transfers Cymyran Bay

and CWind 20T with TAS-2. Nauti-Craft undergoing sea trials in Australia

Fjellstrand enters into service Fjellstrand WindServer, one of

thirteen finalists from the OWA

Access Competition, entered

into service in September 2013

with DONG Energy.

Unfortunately, the vessel has

returned to the yard for some

further upgrades. Further

vessels are currently under

construction.

OWA continues to support

seven innovative designs:

Vessels

UMOE Mandal – UMOE is

receiving financial and technical

support to refine the motion

control systems for the rapid

WaveCraft surface effects ship.

UMOE received their first

commercial order to build a

vessel in October 2013.

Nauti-Craft – Nauti-Craft is

receiving support to build an 8m

prototype of the twin-hulled

suspension vessel. Sea trials

have been in progress in

Australian waters, and the

vessel is now being shipped to

Europe for demonstrations at

SeaWork in June.

TranSPAR – Support to the

SPAR-like vessel has been used

to leverage funding from the

Canadian Government and

private investors to fund a full-

scale prototype. Fabrication of

the vessel is about to start.

PDV – The benefits of the

pivoting deck vessel are now

well understood, and OWA is

funding business advice to

North Sea Logistics to help them

get the first vessel to market.

Transfer systems

VGrip – Just over a year ago

Seaspeed presented compelling tank testing data

showing how a V-shaped

fender could increase the

weather window for transfers.

Seaspeed is now receiving

support from OWA to quantify

the benefit for single and twin

V-grips compared to

conventional fenders.

TDD “The Claw” – The OWA

Access Competition included a

design for a gripping device. It

was universally popular, but

wasn’t part of a full transfer

system concept, so was not

initially supported. The concept

has significantly matured, and

the innovators are now

receiving support from OWA.

The robust gripping system

could be a simple way of

improving vessel performance.

Launch and recovery systems

Divex – Divex is receiving

financial and technical support

to tank test their launch and

recovery system that can be

retro-fitted to offshore service

vessels.

SeaWork

The innovators supported

by OWA will be showcased

at SeaWork on

10-12 June 2014, including

demonstrations of

Nauti-Craft’s 8m prototype.

http://www.seawork.com

TAS undergoing sea trials

Cable installation

Physical testing of free-

hanging cables is due to start.

The OWA has been assessing

the potential to use externally

free-hanging cables in

commercial wind farms as an

alternative to internal cabling.

The advantage are a reduced

risk of cable damage during

installation and fewer offshore

operations. Physical testing of

cables will be undertaken at

University of Southampton to

understand the limitations

of free-hanging cables to

inform future cable design

specification.

In addition, the cable

installation technical

working group has started

a project to improve burial

process and update the

Burial Protection Index so

it is fit for offshore wind.

TAS undergoing sea trials TAS Transfer system

The Offshore Wind Accelerator is a unique collaboration between the Carbon Trust and nine international energy companies with licences to develop 77% of the UK’s offshore wind capacity

Offshore Wind Accelerator Newsletter April 2014 • Issue 8 • Page 3

Foundations Universal Foundation

In September 2013, a second Universal Foundation was successfully installed at Dogger Bank to support a met mast. The suction bucket foundation was successfully installed 150km offshore in 25m water in 7 hours, which shows that the design has enormous potential for reducing installation costs for offshore foundations.

The OWA foundation competition finalist had originally been scheduled for installation in January 2013, but the installation had to be re-planned after a small technical issue resulted in damage to the bucket during an earlier installation attempt. The bucket foundation will be heavily monitored to provide the Discretionary Project

Project updates

Serial fabrication — a study has been completed to

quantify the benefits of

adopting serial fabrication to

construct foundations.

Installation optimisations —

a study has been completed to

identify quick wins to reduce

the time and cost of installing

foundations using today’s

installation vessels.

Suction buckets — a study has been completed to

consolidate all the research

that has been done in relation

to suction bucket foundations

and to identify any research

gaps that need to be closed

before suction buckets are

accepted for commercial

projects in offshore wind.

Lifted vs floated —

a study has been launched to

compare the costs of installing

concrete foundations

depending on whether they are

floated out and self-installed,

or installed from a lifting vessel.

Lifetime integrity –

a study has been launched to

understand how to optimise

lifetime costs of balance of

plant – the trade-off between

investing more upfront to

protect the structures

(more CapEx), or to pay-less

upfront and undertake more

maintenance activities

(more OpEx).

UF and keystone demo with turbine Following the announcement of the suction bucket jacket and turbine demonstration by DONG Energy, OWA is looking to find a developer willing to host a demonstration of Universal Foundation or Keystone with a turbine in 2015 or 2016. DONG Energy, E.ON, Mainstream, ScottishPower Renewables, Statkraft and Statoil together with Carbon Trust are all willing to contribute ~£6m towards the costs, in return for the sharing of information about the demonstration. The Carbon Trust is running a call for hosts – open to OWA members and turbine manufacturers in June 2014.

Foundation choices for larger rotor turbines — in December 2013, a study to determine the installed costs of foundations to support larger rotor turbines was completed. Assuming the 8MW Vestas V164 turbine, the study benchmarks the OWA foundation finalists together with an optimised jacket and a monopile to determine the costs at different water depths. The study confirms the benefit of the OWA finalists compared to jackets and monopiles.

Onshore test of vibrodriving is go — In January 2014, an agreement was reached for RWE Innogy to demonstrate the installation of a large monopile using a vibratory hammer. The VIBRO project aims to prove that soils maintain sufficient bearing

UF successfully installed at Dogger Bank

Universal Foundation Trial Installation project scheduled for 2014 The trial installation Discretionary Project to prove that suction bucket foundations can be installed in complex layered soil conditions has been significantly re-scoped and is scheduled for autumn 2014. The project will build on a series of trial installations that Statoil undertook in 2013 using a 3 x 5m suction anchor, installing a 8 x 6m suction anchor that is representative of Universal Foundation (UF) 20 times in the North Sea. A reference design will also be installed at the same locations to ensure the performance of the cookie-cutter design with clay chambers and the UF jetting system are well understood. The project will be led by Statoil, with Statkraft, DONG Energy and E.ON expected to participate – other OWA members are welcome to join.

capacity, avoiding the need for the use of piling to install monopiles and jackets. If successful, vibro-driving will be accepted by bodies such as BSH for foundation installation. The discretionary project is being supported by RWE Innogy, DONG Energy, E.ON, Statkraft and Vattenfall.

participants an understanding of the performance of the structure under wave loading.

A workshop was held in Hamburg in February 2014 where the history of installations of Universal Foundation, from the first at Fredrikshavn in 2003 supporting Vestas V90 to the Universal Foundations at Dogger Bank, were explained in detail to developers and the supply chain.

Electrical

In summer 2013, a

Discretionary Project was launched to qualify 66kV

cables. Supported by DONG

Energy, E.ON, ScottishPower

Renewables, Statkraft and

Vattenfall, the project is

providing financial and

technical support to a number

of cable suppliers to develop

and qualify wet-type 66kV

cables. If successful, the last

jigsaw piece will be in place to

allow developers to adopt 66kV

in commercial projects.

Project updates:

HVDC – 66kV optimisation –

A project has been launched to

optimise the design of HVDC

platforms for 66kV. Carbon

Trust and Arup hosted a

workshop on 2 April in London

which attracted over 100

delegates across the supply

chain.

AC transmission – A study has been launched to

understand how AC

transmission technology can

be improved to extend it

further from shore.

The Offshore Wind Accelerator is a unique collaboration between the Carbon Trust and nine international energy companies with licences to develop 77% of the UK’s offshore wind capacity

Offshore Wind Accelerator Newsletter April 2014 • Issue 8 • Page 4

Upcoming TWG meetings

TWG-A — 12 May

TWG-C —4 June

TWG-E — 3 June

TWG-F — 3 June

TWG-W — mid-June

ORJIP — 17 June

Following the successful trial of FLIDAR at Gwynt Y Mor over winter 2012/13, FLIDAR was deployed by DONG Energy at Burbo over the summer 2013, and the availability data contributed to the OWA to create a compelling body of evidence to show that FLIDAR measures wind speed and wind direction very accurately and reliably. In January 2014, Mainstream launched a new Discretionary Project to first validate the revised version of FLIDAR at Narec next to their met mast, after which it will be deployed at Neart Na Goithe.

Babcock’s floating LIDAR system was deployed at Gwynt Y Mor in July 2013, where the wind speed and direction continues to be validated against the fixed met mast.

Offshore floating

LIDAR trials The Carbon Trust is working closely with RWE Innogy, Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables to set up further trials for floating LIDAR systems in the North Sea. The first step was to launch a tender for suppliers to deploy their units at either Ijmuiden or East Anglia Array. As many as four units may be deployed as a Discretionary Project, subject to the responses from the suppliers. These trials will help to get floating LIDAR accepted as a bankable alternative to fixed met masts.

At EWEA in November 2013, an OWA Roadmap to Commercialise Floating LIDAR was presented, setting clear requirements for floating LIDAR suppliers to meet for their systems to be accepted as bankable for measuring primary wind resource data.

Wake effects

Project updates:

Meso-scale – The first phase of a study to determine whether mesoscale models can be used to forecast wake effects between wind farms has been completed. CERC used a roughness and calibration approach, KVT a novel momentum sink approach; both models predicted long-range wake effects well for a Horns Rev 1 case study. The challenge will be to get the results accepted as bankable. The next step is for the

Ambitious wake effects measurement campaign underway at Rødsand II

The project has three goals

- To improve understanding of

wake effects for small bin sizes

- High frequency data is being

collected to allow accuracy of

wakes models to be tested

- To improve understanding of

bulk flow – especially relevant

for CFD models

- To improve understanding of

turbulence – and how this is

modelled within wakes models.

The measurement campaign

has now been extended to run

for a total of 12-months to

maximise the learnings from

the measurements. Initial

analysis of the data from the first months of the campaign is

being completed, and will

inform how scan patterns are

changed for the remainder of

the campaign.

In May 2013, two scanning LIDARs and four nacelle-mounted LIDARs were installed at E.ON’s Rødsand II wind farm to measure wake effects within an operational wind farm.

Equipment being installed

Images: modelled yield within wind farm and measured data (below)

momentum sink approach to be tested for a different wind farm. There is also interest to combining mesoscale with CFD.

Fuga – the linearised wake effect modelling tool has now been made commercially available, a key step to getting banks’ acceptance of its use for wind resource assessments.

Knowledge Management

PhD on OWA – Heather

Madsen of Aalborg University

has received her Doctorate

Degree on March 21st, 2014

her thesis was titled:

Knowledge Management in

Renewable Energy Innovation:

A Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator Case Study.

ORJIP—The Bird Collision

Avoidance project is aimed at

gathering a more robust set

of data to inform consenting

decisions. This project will be

undertaken at Vattenfall’s

Thanet site using equipment

and analysis provided by

Niras and DHI. A funding

agreements between 8 OWA

members and other

developers active in the UK

are being signed.