Offshore Wind
What is Offshore Wind?
Wind energy is the generation of electricity from the natural wind resource. There are two main categories of wind energy development; onshore and offshore.
Offshore wind energy relates to wind turbines that are installed in the sea where there is a good continuous wind speed.
How does it work?
A wind turbine is a machine that is able of converting the kinetic energy of the wind in to electrical energy that can be used to power the world’s infrastructure such as homes and factories.
The wind turbine is made of key components; blades, nacelle, tower and foundations. As the wind passes over the blades, this creates lift (as seen with aeroplane wings) which causes the rotor to turn, this is connected to a gearbox and generator which results in electricity being generated. Depending on the wind speed, the blades and towers are available in different sizes.
The towers are made of steel or concrete and the blades are made of fibre-reinforced polymers. Both are often in a light grey colour as this blends in with the landscape and day-lighting.
The average size of an offshore wind turbine is around 3-5MW (MW = 1 million watts) with blades between 50-60min length. A wind turbine starts to operate at wind speeds around 3m/s and reach their maximum power around 12-15m/s. If a site experiences very high wind speed above 25m/s, the wind turbine with automatically turn off.
Wind turbines produce electricity approximately 70-85% of the time. The amount of electricity generated will fluctuate depending on the wind speed.
A wind turbine project will generate electricity for 20-25 years with an adequate maintenance regime.
Merits
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Zero-carbon electricity generation.
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Offshore wind can be higher and more frequent than onshore locations.
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Larger wind turbines can be installed to capture more of the wind's kinetic energy.
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New technologies such as floating wind turbines will be able to unlock the potential to install many mega-watts (MW) globally.
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Generates jobs and opportunities in each country and local to the wind farm.
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Low to zero environmental impact.
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Generates for 20-25 years.
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Operates in all seasons and times of the day.
Our Expertise
Our expertise cover site selection and development of wind farm projects. We use in-house developed tools to select the most suitable project locations that consider all the key constraints for a successful project. We consider residents, land designations, flora and fauna when choosing our project sites.
Our wind farms are designed to minimise the impact on their environments and create affordable low-carbon projects.
Within the Acacia Renewable team, we have the following key skills sets:
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Engineering – knowledge of wind farm design and construction.
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Electrical Engineering – experience with grid connections and compliance.
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Procurement – experience in securing construction and turbine contracts.
If you have any inquiries, please contact us here.