Recent environmental awareness resulting particularly from the phenomenon of
global warming has pushed renewable sources of energy towards the top of the
power generation agenda. This has helped promote wind power as the most cost
effective of the renewable technologies.
The Future of Global Wind Power: the technology, economics and impact of wind
power generation is a management report that analyses the prospects for offshore
wind power generation across Europe, North America, Japan and the rest of the
world. It provides key data on the trends in wind power generation, to help you
predict where and when opportunities in offshore wind power generation will
occur.
The report explains how to identify potential sites and use advances in
technology ensure the most effective use of resources. It also details the
environmental costs and benefits of offshore wind farms with reference to key
stakeholders. These impacts are examined with reference to national, European
and International regulatory frameworks. Forecasts to 2020 are included in
respect of future capacity and changes in costs resulting from scale and
technological advances.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
- Introduction
- Offshore wind potential and site identification
- Legislative and regulatory issues affecting offshore wind energy
- Offshore wind technology
- The environmental effects of offshore wind
- The economics of offshore wind generation
- The outlook for offshore wind
Chapter 1 An introduction to wind energy and offshore wind generation
- Summary
- Report structure
- Introduction
- Background
- Capacity development
Chapter 2 Offshore wind potential and site identification
- Summary
- Introduction
- Wind speed and energy output
- Estimating wind speeds
- Regional wind energy potential
- Europe
- North America
- Japan
- The rest of the World
Chapter 3 Legislative and regulatory issues affecting offshore wind energy
- Summary
- Introduction
- International law
- European law
- The Environmental Impact Assessment Directive (1985)
- European water policy
- The Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds (1979); The Directive on
- the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora (1992).
- National policies
- Belgium
- Denmark
- Germany
- Finland
- France
- Ireland
- Italy
- The Netherlands
- Poland
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- US
Chapter 4 Offshore wind technology
- Summary
- Introduction
- Wind turbine design
- Offshore turbines
- Turbine generating capacity
- Wind turbine components
- Rotors
- Blades
- Drive train and generator
- Towers
- Marinization
- Support structures
- Monopiles
- Gravity base structures
- Tripods
- Suction bucket
- Floating wind farms
- Grid connection
- Energy storage
- Operation and maintenance
Chapter 5 The environmental effects of offshore wind
- Summary
- Introduction
- The advantages of wind power
- The disadvantages of wind power
- Visual impact
- Noise
- Airborne noise
- Underwater noise
- Construction noise
- Shipping and fishing
- Radar
- Radio
- Impact on wildlife
- Birds
- Marine mammals
- Fish
- Seabed life
- Environmental impact assessment
Chapter 6 The economics of offshore wind generation
- Summary
- Introduction
- Installation costs
- Energy costs
- External costs of power generation
- Grid issues
- Economic incentives
- Financing offshore wind projects
Chapter 7 The outlook for offshore wind
- Summary
- Introduction
- Drivers and resistors
- Drivers
- Resistors
- The future of offshore wind power generation
- Costs and benefits
- Conclusion
- Index and references
- Index
- References and notes
List of Figures
- Figure 1.1: Growth in offshore wind generating capacity
- Figure 2.2: European offshore wind energy resource
- Figure 4.3: Wind turbine cost distribution
- Figure 6.4: Comparing costs from recent offshore wind farms with costs of
different generating
- technologies 96
List of Tables
- Table 1.1: Offshore wind energy projects
- Table 1.2: Growth in offshore wind generating capacity
- Table 2.3: Annual energy production (MWh)
- Table 2.4: European offshore wind energy resource
- Table 2.5: UK offshore wind energy resources
- Table 2.6: Japan's offshore wind resource
- Table 3.7: Summary of national policies on offshore wind
- Table 4.8: Wind turbine cost distribution
- Table 4.9: Offshore wind farm turbine size
- Table 5.10: Lifetime emissions of carbon dioxide for various power
generation technologies
- Table 6.11: Installation cost of offshore wind farms
- Table 6.12: Energy yield as a function of wind speed
- Table 6.13: The cost of electricity produced by offshore wind farms
- Table 6.14: Competitive costs of different generating technologies
- Table 6.15: External costs for various power generation technologies
within the EU
- Table 7.16: Proposed offshore wind projects
- Table 7.17: Second round of UK offshore wind licences