The Expected Dynamics of the European Offshore Wind Sector in the Climate Change Context

Abstract

The objective of this present work is to provide a more comprehensive picture of the wind conditions corresponding to some important European marine energy sites by considering both historical (1979–2020) and climatological data (2021–2100). As a first step, the wind energy profile of each site is assessed using some statistical methods (e.g., Weibull parameters) and some relevant indicators for the wind sector, such as the downtime period (<3 m/s). Since the offshore industry evolves very quickly, another objective of this work was to assess the performances of some large-scale wind turbines defined via capacity productions in the range of 15–25 MW. In terms of the capacity factor, the estimated values frequently exceed 60%, reaching a maximum of 76% in some cases, in line with the expected outputs of the new wind generators. In the final part of this work, several aspects are discussed, among them being the accuracy of the RCPs datasets or the current trends involving the wind sector. The offshore wind sector represents an important pillar of the European green market, which means that the future generation of wind turbines will play an important role in the consolidation of this sector and, eventually, in the expansion to new coastal areas.

Advances in Offshore Wind

“…On the other hand, offshore wind power provides benefits such as higher wind speeds, conservation of land resources, and the absence of noise pollution [2,3]. Consequently, offshore wind power has gained significant attention as a promising direction for development and has made substantial progress in recent years [4].…”

Predictive maintenance for offshore wind turbines through deep learning and online clustering of unsupervised subsystems: a real-world implementation

“…Overall situation of offshore wind energy is laid out by the International Energy Agency (2019) as well as the GWEC (2020) by describing an outlook for the coming years with an emphasis on that offshore wind energy will become more and more important part of the energy mix. Rusu and Onea (2023) gives a review of the state of offshore wind energy sector in Europe in connection with the climate change.…”

Marine Renewable Energy and the Transition to a Low-Carbon Future

“…From this perspective, the goal of this Special Issue is to contribute to the renewable energy agenda by presenting high-quality scientific and multi-disciplinary works, aiming to improve knowledge and performance in extracting offshore renewable energy. This Special Issue entitled 'Marine Renewable Energy and the Transition to a Low-Carbon Future' includes nine contributions [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] published during 2022-2023.…”

“…In [1], both hindcast ERA5 data for the 41-year period of 1979-2020 and future projections until the end of the 21st century are considered to estimate the performance of new wind turbines with rated power in the range of 15-25 MW, which are currently under development. The first dataset was provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, while the second was obtained from climatologic atmospheric models, under three different climate scenarios (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5).…”