Offshore Renewable Energy

• Offshore Market Overview

1.  Three main types of Offshore Energy: Offshore Wind, Wave and Tidal

According to ‘The World Offshore Renewable Energy Report 2004-2008’, a total capacity of 6.6GW of offshore wind, wave and tidal generation was forecast to be installed worldwide during 2004 to 2008, with some 99% of that coming from offshore wind farms.             

2.  European Offshore Market in the EU In 2010 & 2020:

Year	2010	2020
Total installed capacity:	3,000 MW	40,000 MW
Annual installations:	1,100 MW	6,900 MW
Electricity production:	11 TWh	148 TWh
Meeting percentage of total EU electricity demand:	0.3%	between 3.6% and 4.3%
Annual investments in wind turbines:	€2.5 billion	€8.8 billion
Avoiding CO2 annually:	7Mt	85Mt

    Source: EWEA Offshore Report- Delivering Offshore Wind Power in Europe

3.  UK Offshore Market:

The UK is the world leader in offshore wind with more projects installed, in planning and in construction than any other country in the world.  A report by the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University shows that the UK has the best wind resource in Europe (2005). By 2020 at least 20,000MW of offshore wind is expected to be installed and operating in UK waters.

PPA Energy is at the cutting edge of the development of policy and regulatory frameworks to make the offshore energy revolution possible, through our work on the ISLES project and work for Ofgem/DECC on offshore transmission coordination.  To find out more click here:ISLES Offshore Grid Project Launch

Practical Resource by Technology and Region in the UK:

      Source: The Offshore Valuation-A valuation of the UK's

                   offshore renewable energy resource

• Offshore Energy and Offshore Grids

Offshore energy resources (such as wind and marine resources) are increasingly located in areas further from shore, requiring new and innovative approaches to the engineering and delivery of the offshore network infrastructure.  There is also an increasing need to trade wind energy between sovereign states so that surpluses can be balanced.

PPA Energy, through its involvement in the ISLES project is undertaking some cutting edge work looking at the regulatory and economic issues that trans-boundary offshore grids present.

ISLES is a collaborative project between the Scottish Government and the Governments of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It aims to deliver an in-depth feasibility study into the development of an offshore interconnected transmission net between these areas. It will also access the renewable energy potential in these areas and produce a business case for the development of a subsea electricity grid.

As the outputs of our work become public domain we will update this page with further details.

• Owning and Managing Offshore Network Assets

PPA Energy’s core team has many years’ experience in the development of asset management strategies, maintenance strategies and capital investment programmes for electricity networks.  We also have considerable track record in deploying innovative technologies into networks to improve the control and measurement of power systems and evolve them to become the true smart grids required to meet the challenge of high levels of renewable penetration.

The offshore environment poses some specific and unique challenges, particularly as renewable projects move into areas where water depths and sea conditions become more onerous.  In order to leverage our skills into addressing these issues PPA Energy has signed an MoU with BPP-Tech (hyperlink to their site), who are technical specialists in the design of offshore umbilicals and cable systems, and who also have a long track record in condition assessment and failure of offshore cable systems and other structures.

This allows us to jointly assist offshore network owners with:

1)     Developing approaches to managing performance incentives and the risk/reward decisions associated with designing, building and operating cable systems offshore;

2)     Quantifying the business case for investing in additional assets or in monitoring technologies

3)     Assessing the value (lost revenue) due to downtime of offshore systems

4)     Looking at asset management and maintenance approaches to maximise network uptime and return on investment

• Potential Cooperation & Partnership

If you are interested in finding out more about our skills in this exciting and emergent area, please contact: 

Craig Lucas -Executive Director: marketing@ppaenergy.co.uk

Contact Number: 01483 544944

Offshore Industrial News and Downloads:

http://www.environmental-expert.com/resultEachPressRelease.aspx?cid=11562&codi=218493

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101201/full/468624a.html

http://www.offshoregrid.eu/index.php/results/47-project-results

The Offshore Transmission Coordination Project Reports