A Commentary on the Issues Facing Wind Park Developers in the UK

The UK offshore wind energy sector is booming at the moment. This is largely because of the UK government’s ‘Renewables Obligation’ targets for the generation of electricity from renewable sources of 10% by 2010 and 15% by 2015. As the windiest country in Europe, the UK is in a very good position to fulfil the targets by installing many wind parks in the relatively shallow waters extending into the North Sea. In this article, the author describes the legal implications for offshore wind farms.

The focus of this case study and cost–benefit analysis is an application of a condition-based monitoring (CBM) tool installed in a 700kW wind turbine generator at a project based in the USA. The installation was in response to reports that several wind farms had experienced catastrophic gearbox failures, resulting in exorbitant costs and lost revenues. It began in summer 2003 with a cooperative pilot study, the objective being implementation of a ‘trial installation’ that would demonstrate the benefits of a CBM system on a wind turbine to help prevent catastrophic failures.

Wind power generates CO₂-free electricity and so it can also generate ‘carbon credits’ attached to each delivered kWh. If an environmental derivative market is available, the profitability of a wind power project will result from selling electricity to the energy market and also from selling ‘carbon credits’ on such a derivative market. And this will be more and more possible as the Kyoto Protocol and its attached main ‘flexibility mechanism’ the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) enter into force in 2005 together with the European Trading System (ETS). This article describes  a simple and reliable method to assess the increase in profitability by selling carbon credits.

New Market Requirements

Large offshore wind farms are a potential source to supplement the power generation portfolio in Europe. The offshore environment and the high investment demand a professional approach throughout project development, the contracting and the operational phase. The investment for the electrical transmission system amounts to around 25% and is therefore an essential part of the total project. This article addresses the numerous new market requirements on the electrical transmission system for large offshore wind farms caused by the project structure, the electrical system design and the commercial and contractual conditions.