The Supergrid
Imagine
a wind farm system, or more correctly an interlocking matrix of wind farms, spread over
the kind of area at sea that effectively places no practical limitations on the area
available. It would be so large that it would require the active participation of a number
of governments and a high powered consortium of wind energy companies to being to
fruition. It would cater for the electricity requirements of millions of households.
Such
a concept is no longer just a figment of the imagination. It has been described by an
company that has the credibility of an established track record in wind energy
installations world wide. It’s called the Supergrid and it’s been proposed by
Irish renewable energy company, Airtricity.
At
its ultimate, the concept would see offshore wind farms developed in all of those
countries that have shorelines on the Irish Sea, the North Sea, the English Channel and
the Bay of Biscay, as well as the Nordic countries bordering the Norwegian Sea and Baltic
Sea. No one government or private entity in any country would own the whole matrix. In
fact, a major driver of the idea is that possibility of each country to trade electricity
with the others because of the integration of the system. Eventually there is no reason at
all why it could not cross the Mediterranean and interact with electricity suppliers in North
Africa.
Two
elements that are already in existence make the Supergrid feasible. One is the successful
implementation in the past of offshore wind farms, and the other is the development of
High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission systems, for the transmission of the
output over large distances without losses. The concept promises a great many advantages,
apart from the obvious supply of copious amounts of electricity from wind energy.
The
dispersed nature of all the nodes on the Supergrid means that fluctuations in supply will
be all but eliminated - if the wind is not blowing in one sector it is almost certain to
be doing so in others. Building it will be a modular process, further ensuring success in
the fullness of time. The scale of the project will enable rapid development of those
elements of wind farm technology that currently need to be perfected, creating a world
class body of expertise in the industry.
The
brochure for the project envisages a 10 Gw foundation project as a first step to putting
the Supergrid in place. The following are the facts and figures projected by Airtricity
for this (the following is an extract from the Supergrid brochure, available for download
on the Internet at http://www.airtricity.com/ireland/wind_farms/supergrid/)
:
10GW
Foundation Project
The
first step towards the Supergrid is the 10GW Foundation Project. The Foundation Project
will consist of a number of projects in Dutch, German and United Kingdom waters. These
projects will be interconnected with one another and with their respective national grids.
This will prove the Supergrid concept at a regional level.
The
connected areas will be sufficiently far apart to prove the smoothing effect in
electricity supply from wind farms over a broad area. The 10GW Foundation Project is the
first ever project intended to supply power simultaneously to three different national
electricity systems. It is a large project, and not one which Airtricity seeks to
accomplish alone. Airtricity proposes to establish a consortium of progressive companies
to develop, finance and build the project. Airtricity proposes to lead this consortium.
Location:
North
Sea
interconnecting three countries: United Kingdom,
the
Netherlands and Germany
Area:
3,000km2
(approx.)
Number
of turbines: 2,000
Turbine
capacity: 5MW
Water
depths: 30-50
metres
Operational
date: 2017-2019
Tonnes
of CO2 avoided p.a: 30,000,000
(if coal); 17,200,000 (if gas)
Cars
taken off Road p.a: at
least four million
Homes
powered: 6,250,000
Tonnes
of fossil fuels saved from
being
imported p.a: 7,000,000
Wind
Farm Capital Cost: €2.5m/MW
Wind
Turbine Foundation Life Time: 50
years
Transmission
Cables Life Time: 50
years
Life
time of other assets: 25
years
Repowering
costs after 25 years: €1.25m/MW
Capacity
factor: 40%
Offshore
Transmission Costs: €2.5bn
Proportion
of offshore transmission
costs
recovered from wind farm: 2/3
Proportion
of offshore transmission
costs
recovered from trading: 1/3
Gearing:
75%
Cost
of debt: 7.0%
Cost
of equity: 20.0%
Electricity
costs for the first 25 years of operation of the 10GW project are estimated at €108/MWh
and for the second 25 years at €63/MWh.
This
grid seems like something really worth having.
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