EUROPE GROWING BIGGER TURBINES FOR THE OCEAN

Mammoth wind turbines will cut offshore costs by 40% in 7 years, developer says

March 19, 2013 (ClimateWire via E&E Publishing)

“…Dong Energy, the world's largest developer and operator of offshore wind farms [and a major developer and owner of conventional energy sources], aims to [build unprecedentedly large turbines to] cut the cost of wind energy in the [UK sector of the] North Sea to less than €100 ($130) per megawatt-hour by 2020 compared with €160 ($209) last year.

“Dong's target is actually more ambitious than that of the U.K. government, which wants developers to cut the cost of offshore wind to £100 ($152) per MWh by 2020. It still wouldn't be as cheap as onshore wind, which currently costs about $85 per MWh, while coal costs $82 and natural gas costs $71…To get to €100 per MWh, Dong plans to radically increase the size of the offshore turbines it will install, from 3 to 4 megawatts currently to 8 to 10 MW in 2016 through 2020. Such turbines don't even exist yet…”

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“Vestas, the world's second-largest wind turbine maker, is working [with Dong] on an 8 MW offshore turbine, but it won't have a prototype ready for offshore testing until next year…[and] Dong, which last month asked the Danish government for an equity injection of $1.4 billion after losing money on natural gas storage investments in Germany, is planning to test two new Siemens 6 MW turbines [in Q2 2013 and both Siemens and GE are working toward 10 MW turbines]…

“…[O]ffshore wind capacity [is projected to] grow to 40 gigawatts by 2020 from 4.9 GW now. Germany, which has pledged to shut down all its nuclear reactors by 2022, wants 25 GW of offshore wind installed by 2030, up from only about 280 MW now…[Denmark had 923 MW installed and 400 MW under construction in 2013 and is planning an additional 500 MW. It wants to get 50 percent of its electricity from wind] by 2020…France plans to install 6 GW of offshore wind, tidal and wave power by 2020…And the [UK, which] has 3 GW of offshore wind capacity, plans to increase that sixfold to 18 GW by 2020…[T]he Boston Consulting Group says the industry will fall short of 40 GW by 2020 because of lack of funding…[and] says a capacity of 25 GW is more realistic…”

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