Offshore Wind

The offshore wind or offshore Turbines practically use the same system of wind turbines that are located on land but out at sea. This practice of placing wind turbines offshore has its complications.

Why in the sea?
First of all, many countries have already declared their intentions to lower their CO2 emissions and many have seen the land system as a solution but there are some drawbacks. First of all, in many countries, including Spain formalities can take a very long time (up to five years) and developers need to have all the national or local permits to be able to install the wind towers. Also, in many cases there are groups that go against any planning for Wind Farms as they consider them to be ugly, they break the beauty of nature, make too much noise or are a danger to local wildlife such as if placed in the path of migratory birds.

So one solution is to put these wind towers out of sight, and where better than at sea. The technology is advancing rapidly to meet the challenges they bring. The most important so far are:

1.So they are not as visible from the shore engineers want to locate them as far as possible from the coast but this represents an increased cost because they must bring the generated electricity to the mainland and this mean more pipes or connections and increased costs.

2. At sea the force of waves and currents are much stronger and they need to ensure that they are well anchored to the seabed to avoid collapsing in bad weather.
Studies are now under way to minimize these risks and presently in Norway and Offshore Wind Turbines are being installed with a floating base, this practice eliminates the need to set the tower in the seabed, instead the base of the floating tower is tied with some flexible cords that keep the movement to the minimum.

Blade Development is moving fast and the rotors are becoming larger allowing the turbines and offshore wind facilities to produce more electricity. There are many countries that have invested or approved large offshore wind projects. Britain is one of the countries that currently lag behind in its use of renewable energy has already two big projects approved.

Germany and the Nordic countries are already underway with marine parks.
Offshore wind will be an important part of the mix needed to generate electricity from renewable energy sources and changing the use of fossil fuels which emit polluting gases like CO2.

With the great diversity of natural resources and climate that Europe offers, sustainable solutions such as tapping  the sun´s energy in southern Europe and north Africa, wind turbines on land and off shore installations, geothermal energy from countries such as Iceland and  the widespread use of other sources such as biomass and tidal energy would create an ideal, balanced Renewable Energy Mix.

Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved