The planet’s biggest and most powerful wind turbines have begun generating electricity off the Liverpool coast, cementing Britain’s reputation as a world leader in the technology.
Danish company Dong Energy has just finished installing 32 turbines in Liverpool Bay that are taller than the Gherkin skyscraper, with blades longer than nine London buses.
Dong Energy, the wind farm’s developer, believes these machines herald the future for offshore wind power: bigger, better and, most importantly, cheaper.
Each of the 195m-tall turbines in the Burbo Bank extension has more than twice the power capacity of those in the neighboring Burbo Bank wind farm completed a decade ago.
“That shows you something about the scale-up of the industry, the scale-up of the technology,” Dong Energy UK country manager Benjamin Sykes said.
The project is the first time the 8 megawatt turbines have been commercially used anywhere in the world, which Sykes hailed as a “very important milestone” for the sector.
Subsidies, friendly regulation and a maritime past have helped the UK install more offshore wind power than any other nation in the world.
Collectively they now have a capacity of 5.3 gigawatts, generating enough electricity to power 4.3 million homes. Eight further projects already under construction will add more than half that capacity again, but ministers have made it clear that the industry must keep cutting costs if the technology, the only large renewable energy source backed by the governing Conservative Party, is to continue earning taxpayer support.
While a study showed the cost of offshore wind has fallen a third since 2012, a key litmus test will be the results of a government auction this summer for £90 million (US$117 million) of renewable energy subsidies.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it comes in below Hinkley,” Sykes said of the prices offshore wind farms might reach, compared with the £92.50 per megawatt hour that France’s EDF has been guaranteed for electricity generated by the nuclear power station it is building in Somerset.
Previous offshore wind farm subsidy deals have cost well above £100 per megawatt hour.
“This and other projects have been crucial for driving costs down for the whole industry,” Skyes said of the Burbo Bank extension.
Building fewer, but more powerful turbines like these is cheaper because each tower and its blades need a foundation, the “transition piece” that goes atop that, plus the cables to connect it to a nearby substation and ongoing maintenance.
In Germany, Dong made waves when the electricity grid regulator approved its bid to build the world’s first subsidy-free offshore wind farm.
While Skyes would not be drawn on when UK wind farms might do the same, he describes this one off Liverpool as “part of the journey to a zero-subsidy wind farm.”
Dong thinks that by the time that German wind farm begins construction, there will be turbines as powerful as 13 megawatts or 15 megawatts.
“There’s every reason to think they will arrive,” said Sykes, although he acknowledged eventually they would hit a theoretical limit.
The majority of turbines in UK waters today are between 3 megawatts and 3.6 megawatts, with a smattering at 5 megawatts to 7 megawatts, but the Burbo Bank extension is a herald of things to come.
Most of the 16 projects which have a planning green light, but have not started construction yet, are to use turbines of at least 8 megawatts.
While the UK benefits from the power from those wind farms, the industry has been criticized in the past for not ensuring enough parts are made in Britain. Dong does not put a figure on what percentage of the Burbo Bank extension is UK built, but half the blades are made at MHI Vesta’s Isle of Wight factory, while the bits that sit on top of the foundation are built in Teesside.
For people such as Justin Donaghan, the industry also means skilled jobs and a long-term career.
The 34-year-old former Royal Navy engineer never saw himself working in green energy before he started working on the original Burbo Bank wind farm seven years ago. He is now a turbine supervisor, looking after the small teams that service the turbines.
“I don’t even think there was a renewable-energy sector when I was younger,” Donaghan said.
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