Definition of the Subject and Its Importance
Offshore wind power is defined as construction of wind farms , located in the water, generating electricity from wind.
Land-based wind power will remain dominant in the immediate future but installations at sea will become increasingly important.
Compared to onshore wind, offshore wind is more complex and costly to install and maintain but also has a number of key advantages. Winds are typically stronger and more stable at sea than on land, resulting in significantly higher production per unit installed. At sea, wind turbines can be bigger than on land because of the logistical difficulties of transporting very large turbine components from the place of manufacturing by road to installation sites on land. Wind farms at sea also have less potential to cause concern among neighboring citizens and other stakeholders unless they interfere with competing maritime activities or impact negatively on important marine environmental interests. In...
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Abbreviations
- Environmental conditions:
-
Characteristics of the environment (wind, waves, sea currents, water level, sea ice, marine growth, scour, overall seabed movement, etc.) which may affect the wind turbine behavior.
- External conditions (wind turbines):
-
Factors affecting operation of an offshore wind turbine, including the environmental conditions, the electrical network conditions, and other climatic factors (temperature, snow, ice, etc.).
- Fetch:
-
Distance over which the wind blows constantly over the sea with approximately constant wind speed and direction.
- Power collection system (wind turbines):
-
Electric system that collects the power from one or more wind turbines. It includes all electrical equipment connected between the wind turbine terminals and the network connection point. For offshore wind farms, the power collection system may include the connection to shore.
- Scour:
-
Removal of seabed soils by currents and waves or caused by structural elements interrupting the natural flow regime above the sea floor.
- Significant wave height:
-
Statistical measure of the height of waves in a sea state, defined as 4∗ση where ση is the standard deviation of the sea surface elevation. In sea states with only a narrow band of wave frequencies, the significant wave height is approximately equal to the mean height of the highest third of the zero up-crossing waves.
- Splash zone:
-
External region of support structure that is frequently wetted due to waves and tidal variations. This shall be defined as the zone between the highest still water level with a recurrence period of 1 year increased by the crest height of a wave with height equal to the significant wave height with a return period of 1 year, and the lowest still water level with a 20 recurrence period of 1 year reduced by the trough depth of a wave with height equal to the significant wave height with a return period of 1 year.
- Wind shear:
-
Variation of wind speed across a plane perpendicular to the wind direction.
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Dalén, G. (2013). Offshore Wind Power. In: Kaltschmitt, M., Themelis, N.J., Bronicki, L.Y., Söder, L., Vega, L.A. (eds) Renewable Energy Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5820-3_81
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