Feasibility analysis for floating offshore wind energy

Abstract

Purpose The assessment of the economic feasibility of floating offshore wind farms (FOWFs) plays an important role in the future possible spreading of this challenging technology in the wind power industry. The use of specific economic analyses is fundamental to point out the potential of FOWFs and to sustain their technical value. Within this topic, the implementation of the FOWF life cycle cost model and producibility analysis in a geographic information system is developed, with the aim of carrying out a feasibility analysis at the territorial scale, for different types of floater. Moreover, a simplified model for a quick life cycle cost assessment is proposed and calibrated. Methods The available cost model is first validated comparing the costs of FOWFs based on different floaters (Semi-Submersible Platform—SSP, Spar Buoy—SB and Tension Leg Platform—TLP) with corresponding results available in the literature. Then, it is implemented in QGIS to be used for territorial-scale analyses and sensitivity analyses of the cost parameters. A feasibility analysis is developed through the main financial parameters. Finally, the results are then used to calibrate a simplified version of the cost model that depends on three main parameters, namely distance to shore, distance from the port of operation and bathymetry. Results and discussion The FOWF cost values are found to be in good agreement with those coming from analytical methods similar to the one from the authors. However, some discrepancies with those based on average costs are observed. Then, the results of the sensitivity analysis are presented as life cycle cost maps, giving an overall picture of the variation of the total cost of FOWF installations on a reference domain. The results show that among the three types of floaters considered here, the SSP proved to be the most promising one, giving lower costs than the SB and the TLP. Moreover, a good agreement between the results in terms of total cost of FOWFs calculated with the analytical and simplified models for SSPs, SBs and TLPs is observed. Finally, the feasibility analysis showed that the financial parameters are more influenced by the wind speed than by the cost of the farm. Conclusions The paper aims to provide guidance on how to carry out feasibility analyses of a specific site for FOWF installation, thus supporting decision-making procedures. The approach and the results presented here are meant for use in the early stage of the decision-making process, as a tool for the assessment of the economic feasibility of FOWFs installation.

Analysis of Wind Turbine Equipment Failure and Intelligent Operation and Maintenance Research

“…However, the model is run without the inclusion of transmission line conductors, which can increase the desired loading factor. Maienza et al [199] collected the latest data and parametric equations from databases and literature to establish a life-cycle cost model for offshore floating wind farms, divided the life-cycle cost into three parts-capital cost, O&M cost, and decommissioning cost-and analyzed the differences between different types of floating platforms in terms of cost components, transportation, and installation. Garcia-Teruel et al [200] performed a life-cycle assessment of an offshore floating wind farm using an advanced O&M model to quantify the impact of environmental factors and compared the estimated characteristics of the Spar case and the Semi-sub case, as shown in Table 6.…”

Scenario Analysis of Offshore Wind-Power Systems under Uncertainty

“…The modelling of wind-energy systems focusing on technical and economic models but neglecting uncertainty has been studied in recent years [13,14]. Nevertheless, the uncertainty of wind speed strongly influences the economic performance of the wind turbines, and the inclusion of that significantly improves the evaluation accuracy [15,16].…”

The potential role of airborne and floating wind in the North Sea region

“…Floating wind turbines are deemed essential for policymakers to consider to unlock the potential for offshore wind globally [35]. Many case studies have been done on feasibility [36], preferred platform type [37], as well as multi-criteria evaluation [38], and energy system scenario studies [39]. Moore et al [40] investigated the potential by 2050 of floating wind turbines in the UK using an energy system model.…”