TY - JOUR
T1 - How do technological choices affect the economic and environmental performance of offshore wind farms?
AU - Kainz, S.
AU - Guilloré, A.
AU - Bottasso, C. L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - The ongoing energy transition towards fully sustainable energy systems requires designing wind farms looking beyond the sole levelized cost of energy, in order to concurrently ensure not only the economic profitability but also the environmental friendliness of future plants. Within this new approach to design, it becomes necessary to understand the effects that various possible technological choices have on both the economic and the environmental performance of wind farms. This study presents a framework designed to support these coupled economic-environmental assessments. The capabilities of the code are showcased by analysing the impact of different choices in terms of support structure type, specific power, tower height, powertrain type, and array and export voltage level for an exemplary offshore farm, chosen here as the IEA Wind 740-10-MW Reference Offshore Wind Plant with irregular layout. While the effects of many technological choices on the cost of energy are already well understood by industry, the present analysis shows that - at least in this specific case - climate change impacts are mainly driven by steel production, due to the massive amount of required material, but also, interestingly, by vessel activities. A low specific power, tall towers, and a high export cable voltage appear to offer the greatest potential for the concurrent improvement of the environmental and economic performance of the plant.
AB - The ongoing energy transition towards fully sustainable energy systems requires designing wind farms looking beyond the sole levelized cost of energy, in order to concurrently ensure not only the economic profitability but also the environmental friendliness of future plants. Within this new approach to design, it becomes necessary to understand the effects that various possible technological choices have on both the economic and the environmental performance of wind farms. This study presents a framework designed to support these coupled economic-environmental assessments. The capabilities of the code are showcased by analysing the impact of different choices in terms of support structure type, specific power, tower height, powertrain type, and array and export voltage level for an exemplary offshore farm, chosen here as the IEA Wind 740-10-MW Reference Offshore Wind Plant with irregular layout. While the effects of many technological choices on the cost of energy are already well understood by industry, the present analysis shows that - at least in this specific case - climate change impacts are mainly driven by steel production, due to the massive amount of required material, but also, interestingly, by vessel activities. A low specific power, tall towers, and a high export cable voltage appear to offer the greatest potential for the concurrent improvement of the environmental and economic performance of the plant.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85196537748&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/1742-6596/2767/8/082005
DO - 10.1088/1742-6596/2767/8/082005
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85196537748
SN - 1742-6588
VL - 2767
JO - Journal of Physics: Conference Series
JF - Journal of Physics: Conference Series
IS - 8
M1 - 082005
T2 - 2024 Science of Making Torque from Wind, TORQUE 2024
Y2 - 29 May 2024 through 31 May 2024
ER -