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Aberdeen Mechanical Society
(Instituted 1888)
Minutes of Joint Meeting with IMechE
Date:- 1st December 2004
Venue:- Business School, Robert Gordon University, Garthdee
Chair:- Andrew Dobson, IMechE
Present:- Society members plus other institutions and guests
Talisman Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm - Alan MacAskill
Andrew Dobson introduced Alan MacAskill, Project Director at Talisman Energy UK Ltd. Alan is a maths graduate from the University of Edinburgh, and worked at BP for 20 years in reservoir and production engineering before joining Talisman in 1988.
Alan defined the DOWNVInD project which he leads: Distant Offshore Windfarm with No Visual Intrusion In Deepwater. DOWNVInD is co-funded by the DTI, the EU, the Scottish Executive, Talisman and Scottish & Southern Energy. Its purpose is to evaluate the impact on the environment, community and people, and demonstrate the viability of deepwater wind farms, share learnings, and pioneer unobtrusive deepwater wind farms.
The wind turbine will be 135m diameter (London Eye) and width 400 tonnes (fully laden 747). The project will have participants from many companies over several countries. The main contracts are being let over the next few months. The project will focus on three areas:-
Research:
Environment – fish, birds, cetaceans, socio-economics local and government
Power collection, transmission, and grid stability
Operations & Maintenance – access, safety, routine, costs
Structures – loads, design, fabrication, standards, decommissioning
Demonstrator:
Consents – Survey, procurement, manufacturing, tie-ins
Located 2km from Beatrice Alpha
Two turbines in 42m LAT water depth
Innovations required:
Turbines, structures, fabrication, installation, operations and maintenance
Costs - £4-6000/tonne of typical offshore UK fabrication needs to drop to £1000-2000/tonne
O&M – Access to turbine from vessel for safe and dry access
In conclusion, this project for two turbines today needs to demonstrate deepwater offshore wind farms are practical, viable and acceptable, so that 200 turbines are available to meet the 1GW installed power target.
Alan and his colleague James lead a long session of questions and answers, which raised the following points:
- - 1100 to 1200 wind turbines are in place today, producing 750-800MW, i.e. averaging 300kW. How do we get to 5MW per turbine? Today's standard is already 2-3MW per turbine, from a start at 50kW in the mid 80s. The next generation of 4.5 - 5MW turbines is on the market now, and manufacturers are working on 5-7MW machines, aiming for 10MW by 2010. alternative energy is to grow from current 800MW to 10-11GW by 2010, with a large part from wind, with wave and tidal to follow. 45% of Europe’s wind/wave/tidal capacity is in Scotland. Germany is targeting 50GW by 2015. The US is stimulating alternative energy development. The size limit is continually being extended, and this is pushing developments 30km offshore for acceptability.
- - The energy balance is in credit, but not yet calculated.
- - Beatrice’s future could include being a transformer station for a multi-turbine field.
- - Capacity factors are around 40% on wind farms, aiming to 50% in the Orkneys. Up-time s around 98%
- - Design life is 20 years, but DOWNVInD project is planned for 5 years.
- - All major manufacturers produce 2 or 3 blade horizontal axis turbines, with 3 blades more aesthetically acceptable.
- - The EU Framework grant took 9 months effort and £400,000 to obtain 6,000,000 Euros funding.
- - The licensing process is similar to hydrocarbons, via the DTI, out to 200miles, with terms including royalties and work programme commitments.
Professor Bryden offered the vote of thanks remarking on the importance of the work in providing energy for our futures.