About wind turbines (March 2022)
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The documents are classified by date of publication Click on the descriptions to open them
• Windpower: Comparing offshore wind turbine foundations. • Windpower: Comparing floating foundations for offshore wind farms • Wind farms construction. • Wind Europe. • Eiffiage Smulders. • Liskow & Lewis - Floating Foundations: The Future of Offshore Wind. • Foundation Design of Offshore Wind Structures • 2H offshore - Fixed Wind Foundations: An Independent Concept Screening Approach • CNBM International - Offshore Wind Farm Components & Construction Process. • DUDGEON Offshore Wind Farm - Foundations. • Euskalforging - Flanges for offshore wind foundations and towers. Rings for rotor, stator, blade extenders, break discs, pitch and yaw bearings… • Catapult offshore renewable energy - Wind farm cost. • Cembureau - Floating concrete: the untold story of offshore wind. • University of Liverpool - Optimisation of foundation designs for offshore wind farms. • European Clean Hydrogen Alliance. • Wind Europe. • Solarimpulse foundation - Solutions to fight climate change.
Websites
Videos & animations
• Iv consult - Self installing wind turbine • France Energies Marines - An integrated and robust methodology foor mooring monitoring of floating offshore wind turbine. • Orsted - Wind turbine supporting jacket installation. • Ghent university - Floating offshore wind turbine platform simulation. • Pemamek Ltd - Pema solutions: Floating wind turbine structures. • Interesting Engineering - How do offshore wind turbines work. • Siemens - Offshore Wind Farm Installation. • Sea wind - Two bladed offshore wind turbine build & installation • University of Exeter - Stability of floating bodies. • Fred. Olsen Windcarrier - Offshore wind farm installation. • De oude bibliotheek academy - Vertical axis turbines. • IRM Offshore and Marine Engineers Private Limited - Pile gripper & grout seal.
• Manufacturing and Recycling Impact on Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Innovative Wind Power Plant Part 1/2 Authors: Krzysztof Doerffer, Patrycja Bałdowska-Witos, Michał Pysz, Piotr Doerffer, & Andrzej Tomporowski. Published 2021 • Manufacturing and Recycling Impact on Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Innovative Wind Power Plant Part 2/2 Authors: Krzysztof Doerffer, Patrycja Bałdowska-Witos, Michał Pysz, Piotr Doerffer, & Andrzej Tomporowski Published 2021 • Monitoring of Caged Bluefin Tuna Reactions to Ship and Offshore Wind Farm Operational Noises. Authors: Vicente Puig-Pons, Ester Soliveres, Isabel Pérez- Arjona, Victor Espinosa. & 8 other scientists. Published: 2021 • Spatial and temporal analysis of cumulative environmental effects of offshore wind farms in the North Sea basin. Authors: Laura Florentina Gușatu, Stefano Menegon, Daniel Depellegrin, Christian Zuidema & 2 other scientists Published: 2021 • The Relation between Migratory Activity of Pipistrellus Bats at Sea and Weather Conditions Offers Possibilities to Reduce Offshore Wind Farm Effects. Authors: Robin Brabant, Yves Laurent, Bob Jonge Poerink, Steven Degraer Published: 2021
We continue highlighting resolutions from COP 26 and their potential consequences on the diving & ROV industry with the wind turbines. These means of electric production are the most promoted by politics and financial organizations and, of course, the most discussed in the mainstream press. Like for river and tidal turbines, the idea of using the wind as a source of power for pumps, mills, and other machines is from antiquity. It is said that water pumps activated by wind and windmills were employed in china two centuries before our era. Texts written at the beginning of the Roman empire attest that such machines were used in Egypt for irrigation or draining flooded areas. Windmills were also used to grind grain during this period in middle-east countries where rivers are rare or difficult to exploit. However, they have been adopted only several centuries later in other parts of the world, such as Europe, where they are attested first only at the end of the 10th century. From this time, these pieces of machinery have been continuously improved to become more efficient and easier to implement, notably during the 18th and 19th centuries. Thus, they were already considered the top technology during this period. However, they had the inconvenience of wind turbines today, which is the unpredictability of the wind, and thus a cyclic availability. This inconvenience made windmills gradually become abandoned in Europe in preference of watermills and industrial flour mills at the beginning of the 20th century when the roads started to improve, and mechanical means of transportation made the transfer of goods easier. Nevertheless, windpumps have continued to be used to pump or drain water until now.
The idea to use wind turbines to produce electricity in isolated areas started when implementing electrical distribution networks after the first war. However, the studies and installation of wind turbines, built with modern materials used in the space and aviation industries, started during the middle of the seventies following the 1973’s petroleum crisis, which highlighted the fact that many countries were entirely petrol dependent. Some countries, such as Denmark, massively developed this technology. Ecologists and some pressure groups have supported this means of electricity production as a substitute for nuclear and petrol-based electricity following the nuclear accident in Chernobyl and the increasing idea that petroleum is responsible for gas emissions that favor climate change due to the greenhouse effect.
Two main types of architecture were used: Tower mills consisted of towers made of stone or wood with their roof designed to pivot to bring the sails into the wind. This roof had to be oriented manually by pushing the tail pole like the model on the side (see #1). Nevertheless, since the middle of the 19th century, this operation could be done automatically through a fantail, like the model above (see #2 above).
Another arrangement, called “post mill”, consisted of installing the tower and its entire machinery on a vertical post, around which it was oriented, like in the illustrations below from the Diderot - d’Alembert encyclopedia (published between 1757 & 1766). The first models of windmills were dangerous to operate because too fast rotation speed could destroy them, and the miller was obliged to climb on the sails to deploy and adjust them. This condition has been improved from the 2nd half of the 19th century with the apparition of systems allowing to deploy and adjust the sails from inside the tower, such as the “Berton system”, composed of several sliding wooden planks deployed and retracted using gears and levers. The windmill above was equipped with such a system.
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Most modern wind turbines currently erected consist of a giant propeller installed as high as possible. The rotor blades are usually made of composite materials such as carbon fibers The tower and the nacelle are usually made of steel. However, composite materials may be used for some parts The nacelle houses the shafts ( low and High speed), the gearbox, the generator, and the brakes. The foundation can be made of steel, notably for the units installed offshore, or concrete. Access to the machinery in the nacelle is usually made through the tower.
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1 - Gravity and piled platforms 2 - Compliant tower 3 - Semi submersible platform 4 - Spar platform 5 - Tension leg platform
3 - Wind turbine jacket installation (suction)
4 - IRM pile gripper and grout seal ( piling)
Gravity and piled structures are currently the most used as most fields are installed in shallow areas. However, solutions for far offshore installations have already been studied, and we can imagine that most future fields of wind turbines will probably be installed not in direct view from the coasts and away from fishing soon. The main reasons that come to mind regarding this trend are that exploitable areas near the shore will be quickly occupied. Also, despite the fact they are widely promoted by a lot of pressure groups and many governments and are suggested as the primary substitute to nuclear and petroleum industries, wind turbines have this paradox that they are criticized and rejected by people living in their proximity, and even by some ecological associations who were the 1st to ask for their implementation. This phenomenon of rejection trends to increase in many countries, which slowdowns their installation. Also, several wind farms have been dismantled or are stopped and are to be removed at the investor's costs due to recent court decisions following the protestations of their neighbors and associations against their diffusion. It is, of course, bad for the financial groups who invested in them. For these reasons, other technical solutions, such as vertical wind turbines, are investigated to remove the inconveniences pointed out that are mostly linked to the use of gigantic propellers. Also, some companies and scientists suggest coupling them with tidal turbines and using them to extract hydrogen from water that can be stored, which is not the case of electricity, or only in limited quantities.
8 - De oude Bibliotheek academy: Vertical wind turbines
Of course, neighbors' and anglers' rejection of extraction or production plants is not new; people working in the offshore industry are familiar with such problems. However, such a fact must be taken into account by companies invested in their construction as the purpose of a diving and ROV company is to make profits and thus be paid on time for the work done, which is complex and more often impossible if the client falls in bankruptcy. In conclusion, we can say that no reason prevents diving and ROV companies from going on such a market for which most of them have the required competencies. Also, this new market is the opportunity for some contractors that are not IMCA or ADCI members to increase their domain of intervention, provided that they can satisfy the technical requirements. Reports of projects completed by some of these contractors prove they are skilled for many interventions. Regarding the financial risks mentioned above, it is evident that companies not bidding on such offers will be replaced by others. However, it may be prudent to ensure that the project proposed is solid. Collecting such information is, of course, easier for multinational companies that have sufficient resources to employ relevant specialists. As for the precedent posts, we provide papers and a list of websites, which reading allows for self-opinion. They can be accessed by clicking their titles below. Of course, it is necessary to be detached from any form of propaganda for or against these means of electrical production when reading these articles.
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Note that diving and ROV companies already involved in oilfield construction and maintenance are already familiar with the systems of foundations used for offshore wind farms that come from those used in the petroleum industry. The most used are summarised in the picture and animations below:
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• Selection, Design and Construction of Offshore Wind Turbine Foundations. Authors: Sanjeev Malhotra. Published: 2010 • Reliability of multi-purpose offshore facilities: Present status and future direction in Australia. Authors: Vahid Aryai, Rouzbeh Abbassi, Nagie Abdussamie, Faremeh Salehi, & 18 other scientists. published: 2020 • Installation of offshore wind turbines: A technical review. Author: Zhiyu Jiang Published: 2020 • A novel review on optimization techniques used in wind farm modeling. Authors: Karthik Balasubramanian, Sudhakar Babu Thanikanti, Umashankar Subramaniam, N.Sudhakar. & Sam Sichilalu Published: 2020 • The influencing factors and hierarchical relationships of offshore wind power industry in China. Author: Yan Xu, Kun Yang, Guohao Zhao. Published: 2020 • Spatio-temporal assessment and economic analysis of a grid- connected island province toward a 35% or greater domestic renewable energy portfolio: a case in Bohol, Philippines. Authors: Dave J. Pojadas, Michael Lochinvar Sim Abundo Published: 2020 • Global offshore wind turbine dataset. Authors: Ting Zhang, Bo tian, Dhritiraj Sengupta, Lei Zhang, & Yali Si. Published: 2020 • Economic Feasibility of Floating Offshore Wind Farms Considering Near Future Wind Resources: Case Study of Iberian Coast and Bay of Biscay. Author: Laura Castro-Santos, Maite deCastro, Xurxo Costoya, Almudena Filgueira-Vizoso, 7 4 other scientists Published: 2021 • Production of hydrogen from offshore wind in China and cost- competitive supply to Japan. Author: Shaojie Song, Haiyang Lin, Peter Sherman, Xi Yang, & 3 other scientists Published: 2021 • Offshore Wind Market Report: 2021 Edition Author: US Dept Energy Published: 2021 • Principle Parameters and Environmental Impacts that Affect the Performance of Wind Turbine: An Overview. Authors: Mohamed Bashir Ali Bashir Published: 2021 • A Comprehensive Study of the Mechanical and Durability Properties of High-Performance Concrete Materials for Grouting Underwater Foundations of Offshore Wind Turbines. Authors: Wen-Ten Kuo, Zheng-Yun Zhuang. Published: 2121 • A review of the UK and British Channel Islands practical tidal stream energy resource. Authors: Daniel Coles, Athanasios Angeloudis, Deborah Greaves, Gordon Hastie & 15 other scientists. Published: 2021 • An overview of wind energy development and policy initiatives in India. Authors: Abhishek Kumar, Divyanshi Pal, Sanjay Kumar Kar, Saroj Kumar Mishra, & Rohit Bansal. Published: 2021 • Investigation on Applicability and Limitation of Cosine Similarity- Based Structural Condition Monitoring for Gageocho Offshore Structure. Authors: Byungmo Kim, Jaewon Oh, Cheonhong Min Published: 2021 • Investigation on Applicability and Limitation of Cosine Similarity- Based Structural Condition Monitoring for Gageocho Offshore Structure. Authors: Byungmo Kim, Jaewon Oh, Cheonhong Min. Published 2021 • Energy Conversion Strategies for Wind Energy System: Electrical, Mechanical, and Material Aspects. Authors: Anudipta Chaudhuri, Rajkanya Datta, Muthuselvan Praveen Kumar, João Paulo Davim, & Sumit Pramanik. Published: 2022
1 - IV consult - A self installing wind turbine (gravity)
2 - Seawind - offshore wind turnbines (Gravity)
5 - Pema floating solutions (spar, tension leg, semi-submesibe)
6 - Ghent university: Floating offshore wind turbine platform
7 - Methodology foor mooring monitoring of floating wind turbine
Environmental
Clik on the pictures below to open the animations
Technical papers