Going the distance
ENERGY ENGINEERING interviews Mott MacDonald’s Richard Krasenberg on the future and limitations of the offshore wind sector
Richard Krasenberg started his new role as manager for offshore wind power at Mott MacDonald in August. He was brought in to lead and manage Mott MacDonald’s activities in the area of major offshore wind projects as this is an established but rapidly growing area of the company’s Renewable Generation Division.
What do you see as the major challenges facing the offshore wind industry?
There are five main challenges as I see it:
1. The onshore and offshore permitting process in most countries can be lengthy and complex.
2. The increasing size of wind turbine generators means that we require stronger installation and transport equipment to handle them. This is of course combined with the constant challenges that arise from the natural environment for offshore wind farm locations. More specifically, tidal areas are difficult to work in because these areas are not accessible for offshore vessels.
3. As technology advances we are moving in to deeper waters. This combined with the weight of installation equipment creates great challenges in building foundations.
4. Supply chain is becoming a large challenge, with a shortage in turbine generator parts especially bearings and power cables. I am aware of only three experienced suppliers of offshore wind power export cables and consequently there can be a long waiting list.
5. And of course finance. Particularly for offshore wind where there are additional risks, clients of ours that finance wind farms really benefit from the experience we can bring to bear.
As an engineering consultancy it is often our role to use our vast knowledge and experience across many disciplines to pre-empt where possible these challenges and to provide solutions for our clients of how to overcome them.
Is there enough international cooperation within the industry and if not how can it be stimulated?
I do not think there is enough international cooperation particularly within permitting. There is not currently a standardised permitting process, therefore each country has its own process, which often has to be completed in the local language.
Although Mott MacDonald is a truly international company operating in over 140 countries, for example there are 28 languages being spoken just in my main office in Brighton, we still find language can be a large barrier.
The knock on effect of this is that it does not encourage competition and work is often awarded locally.
What are likely to be the key developments in the offshore wind industry developing over the next 5, 10 and 20 years?
The reduction of design complexity will be a large area of development. Reducing the complexity of the turbines will make both the manufacturing and maintenance easier, reduce downtime and thus cost less time and money.
The increase in specialised equipment and maintenance to efficiently transport power over long cables, HVDC is a very important development.
The new development of offshore grids to balance the load of offshore wind power generation will also be very important.
I also believe there will be development in specific health and safely guidelines for offshore wind farms and wind turbines. For example, as the current framework is based on singular oil platforms, whereas wind farms can have many platforms and this makes having an emergency ‘safest route out’ very difficult to plan.
Are there lessons to be learnt and technology transfer opportunities to be had from the oil and gas sectors?
Yes there are definitely lessons to be learnt from the oil and gas industry as the conditions and technologies are very similar. Mott MacDonald has been established in the Oil and Gas industry since the 1960’s and we find this a great resource for our offshore wind projects. For example our design centre in Abu Dhabi produces great data from a very comparable environment to Europe (apart from the temperature of course!).
What issues do you think will affect the deployment deadlines for the offshore wind industry?
Supply chain as I mentioned above is very important as we are limited to a small number of suppliers and often face long waiting lists for parts.
Infrastructure and grid connections in the UK is an important issue as the UK spent approximately 100 years building the power generation grid in the south. However as the majority of our offshore wind sites are in the north of the UK we are attempting to build a similar system in approximately one fifth of the time.
There is a major skills shortage in operations and maintenance as we can’t have existing skills in a new industry and are therefore still learning.
For example, the BERR Offshore Wind Capital Grants Scheme, Barrow Offshore Wind Farm’s 1st Annual Report provided some real insight into the limits on operations and maintenance as they had issues with “low access due to high waves.” It’s this cooperative nature of our business that will make it successful. Sharing information on first hand experiences will lower the barriers for entry.
To date there have been only three ‘Project Financed’ offshore wind farms built and Mott MacDonald has acted as lenders’ engineer on all of them. Mott MacDonald marked the financial close on the Belwind project at Bligh Bank in Belgium, the largest offshore wind farm to be financed on a private finance/non recourse basis in August. The project known as Bligh Bank Offshore Wind Farm will see the construction and operation by Belwind of the first phase of a 165MW wind farm, 47km off the Belgian coast. This development will consist of 55 turbines, each rated at 3MW, delivering a capacity of 165MW. Total investment is expected to be €610 million, with a second phase to bring total capacity up to 330 MW planned to follow on from this initial phase.
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