News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

Onshore wind farms

There are several onshore wind farms in construction. In the recent years wind energy has been representing one of the most successful renewable sources of energy.

Since 1996 to 2008 the wind energy capacity has expanded enormously. In 2009, the global wind farm capacity reached 158,505 MW, which represented an increase of 31.7 percent since 2008.

In 2008, wind power represented roughly 1.3 percent of the world’s energy supply. Currently wind energy represents 20 percent of Denmark’s electricity needs, 14.5 percent of both Portugal and Spain, as well as 9 percent of the Republic of Ireland’s energy requirements.

Moreover, wind power in America increased with 39 percent in 2009, matching a total of 35,000 MW. In China an even larger growth was seen in 2009 as wind power capacities grew from 12,200 to 25,800 megawatts.

Offshore Wind Farms

In September 2009, Denmark’s Horns Rev 2 wind farm became the world’s biggest offshore wind farm. Currently, the United Kingdom is the leader in offshore wind power and subsequently Denmark. The offshore wind power sector is presently at a rapid expansion, and one of the large projects in progress is the Greater Gabbard wind farm of 500 MW that is being constructed in U.K.

There are also other offshore wind farms that have been suggested in the United Kingdom such as London Array’s 1,000 MW and Atlantic Array’s 1,500 MW wind farms.

New technology emerging in wind energy is the deep-water, floating-turbine which is slowly being used. Hywind is the first utility-scale installation using this technology. It consists of a turbine generating 2.3 MW and is located 220 meters of deep water in the North Sea. This wind farm has been functional since September 2009.

There are great potential for offshore wind energy. Consultancy Frost & Sullivan says that offshore wind power can expand to a colossal 18,769 MW within in five years (2015). Besides, figures from SBI Energy are even more promising. In April 2010 a report suggested that offshore wind energy represents an economic opportunity for producers of wind turbine. The paper suggested that wind energy potential could grow to 79,700 MW. As offshore wind farms are expanding at a global perspective the growth is likely to be significant. In Asia alone offshore energy capacity can expand from currently 100 MW (2010) to above 10,000 MW within five years (2015).

Source: SBI Energy, Offshore Wind Farm Manufacturing Worldwide. (have to be ordered)

There is a cost—and-complexity advantage in onshore over offshore wind power. However, offshore wind power has a strong advantage as well. The winds are steadier and more energy can be generated per wind turbine installed. The most compelling advantage is that the sea occupies a much larger surface than land, and is highly under exploited. There is thus a great potential to develop even bigger wind turbines at a larger scale.

Source: Wikipedia 1 and Wikipedia 2