The global wind revolution

Wind energy is the fastest growing source of electricity in the world. Wind power technology is being deployed onshore on a large scale in countries across the globe, while offshore wind looks promising and is expected to substantially contribute to a clean energy supply in the future. Many energy companies view wind power as a future business area. “As a consultancy company providing risk management services to these companies we need to be ahead of developments,” states Senior Consultant Arve Sandve at Scandpower.

Global capacity

Close to 35 GW of new wind capacity was installed worldwide in 2009, bringing total installed capacity up to almost 158 GW – which represents a 31 % increase from 2008. In addition to developments in Europe, growth was driven by China and the US. More new wind power capacity was installed in the EU in 2009 than any other electricity-generating technology, making up 39 % of all new capacity. The US wind energy industry broke all previous records by installing nearly 10,000 MW of new generating capacity in 2009. Asian markets have seen tremendous growth as well. A third of the new turbines worldwide were installed in China, whose 13 GW of new capacity outstripped that of Europe (10.5 GW) and the US (9.9 GW). Many governments now see wind energy as an important component of solutions for dealing with the predicted global energy crisis. In Europe, the US and especially China, large wind parks have already been installed or are under planning. Taking into consideration the lifecycle of a wind park, this major expansion onshore and offshore will pose substantial challenges to the industry.

UK leads the way offshore

The UK is becoming a world leader in offshore wind. The country has implemented a series of large-scale projects in its waters and more are planned for the near future. Scandpower is playing a role in the construction of the Sheringham Shoal wind park, which is currently underway. “We are providing Statoil with support services for this very exciting project. From a risk management point of view the construction phase represents new challenges with regard to safe marine operations and risk management in general,” says Mr Sandve. “However, we are confident that pooling our companies’ extensive oil and gas offshore experience will ensure safe project execution.”

New operations concepts

The installation of large-scale offshore The global wind revolution wind parks is not the only challenge facing the industry. Technology and support systems also need to be developed to ensure safe, efficient operations. Major development efforts are already underway and test areas have been set up in Europe and the US. For example, Statoil has installed the world’s first floating wind turbine off the coast of western Norway as part of its Hywind Demo project. “There are many interesting elements in this R&D project, whose main goal is to develop a commercially-proven floating turbine concept. Basically, the overarching focus is on ensuring safe, efficient operations in harsh environments, with specific focus on accessibility and reliability, remote operations, maintainability (easy to repair) and serviceability (easy to service),” explains Mr Sandve.

Risk management services

The rapid growth in development of wind parks – and offshore parks in particular – is challenging providers of traditional risk management services for the offshore industry to provide the wind energy industry with support services tailored to their needs. “It is not about reinventing the wheel,” he says. “Rather, it is about applying our experience in customising services for the offshore oil and gas industry to the offshore wind industry in order to ensure safe operations. We will have to tackle challenges in every phase of a wind park’s lifecycle, from the project phase through construction and marine operations to maintenance.”

The European Wind Energy Association expects the completion of 10 additional offshore wind parks in 2010 in Europe alone. This will add 1,000 MW of capacity and represents a market growth of 75 % compared to 2009. If recent development in the US and China is also taken into account, the future looks bright indeed for the wind energy industry.

Figure: Top 10 total installed capacity 2008