A Haliade X wind turbine photographed on March 2, 2022 in the Netherlands. The Haliade-X is part of a new generation of giant turbines to be installed in the coming years.
Peter Bur | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In the not-too-distant future, bodies of water 15 miles from Martha’s Vineyard will be home to what may be a pivotal part of America’s energy future: the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind 1 project, a project described as “the nation’s first commercial offshore wind farm.” “
Construction of Vineyard Wind 1 began last year and the facility will use 13 MW versions of GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X turbines. With a height of up to 260 meters (853 feet), a rotor diameter of 220 meters and 107 meter blades, the Haliade-X is part of a new generation of turbines to be installed in the coming years.
In addition to GE, other companies are also participating in the great Turbine Act. In August 2021, Chinese company MingYang Smart Energy released details of a 264-meter-tall design that will use 118-meter blades.
Elsewhere, Danish company Vestas is working on a 15-megawatt turbine with a 236-meter rotor diameter and 115.5-meter blades, while Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy is developing a turbine with 108-meter blades and 222-meter rotor diameter .
The reasons for these increases in size are clear. In terms of altitude, the US Department of Energy says turbine towers “get taller to capture more energy, as winds generally increase with altitude.”
Read more about clean energy from CNBC Pro
Larger rotor diameters aren’t just for show either, as the DOE states that they “allow wind turbines to sweep more area, capture more wind, and generate more power.”
It’s the same with blades. The DOE says longer blades “can capture more of the available wind than shorter blades — even in areas with relatively little wind.”
Huge turbines coming onto the market is all well and good, but their sheer size may pose a number of challenges to the sector in the medium to long term and create bottlenecks that could cause headaches.
ship shape
Take installations. In February, investigations by Rystad Energy refined some of the potential issues related to the vessels used to install offshore wind turbines on the high seas.
Not counting China, it said wind turbines had experienced a growth spurt in recent years, increasing from an average of 3 megawatts (MW) in 2010 to 6.5 MW today.
That shift, she explained, is likely to continue. “Turbines larger than 8MW accounted for just 3% of global installations between 2010 and 2021, but that percentage is projected to rise to 53% by 2030.”
The above data relates only to offshore wind turbines. Demand for vessels capable of installing larger offshore turbines will exceed supply by 2024, according to the energy research and business intelligence firm.
Operators, it said, “must invest in new vessels or upgrade existing ones to install the oversized turbines that are expected to become the norm by the end of the decade, or the pace of offshore wind installations could slow.”
“When the turbines were smaller, the installation could be performed by the oil and gas industry’s fleet of first generation offshore wind vessels or converted jackups,” said Martin Lysne, Rystad Energy’s senior analyst for rigs and vessels, in a statement on time.
As operators continue to favor larger turbines, Lysne said a “new generation of purpose-built vessels” will be needed to meet demand.
These special ships are not cheap. US company Dominion Energy, for example, is leading a consortium building the 472-foot Charybdis, which will cost around $500 million and will be capable of installing current and next-generation turbines of 12MW or more. More ships like the Charybdis will be needed in the future as turbines grow.
“Of the current fleet of purpose-built vessels, only a handful of units can install turbines over 10MW, and none are currently capable of installing turbines over 14MW,” according to Rystad Energy’s analysis. “This will change by 2025 as new builds are delivered and existing vessels receive crane upgrades.”
ports
The ships that transport and install turbines will be important in the years to come, but the ports they dock at are another area likely to require investment and modernization to accommodate wind energy growth.
In an emailed comment to CNBC, Rystad Energy’s Lysne described the port infrastructure as “very important” from a ship’s perspective.
Installation ships at anchor in Ostend, Belgium. Industry associations from the wind energy sector are demanding significant investments in the port infrastructure in order to be able to cope with the rapid expansion of wind farms.
Philippe Clément/Arterra | Universal picture group | Getty Images
For the future it seems that a lot of money is needed. Last May, a report by the industry association WindEurope said that Europe’s ports would have to invest 6.5 billion euros (about 7.07 billion US dollars) by 2030 to “support the expansion of offshore wind energy”.
The report looked at the new reality of larger turbines and the implications this could have in terms of ports and infrastructure. “To accommodate larger turbines and a larger market, upgraded or entirely new facilities are required,” it said.
Ports, WindEurope said, would also need to “expand their land, strengthen quays, improve their deep-sea ports and undertake other civil works.”
More recently, a report by the Global Wind Energy Council has also underscored the importance of ports.
“As offshore wind projects expand and commercial-scale floating wind projects proliferate, port upgrades will be critical to the future success of the industry,” it said.
The Brussels-based organization said turbine sizes had “increased dramatically” over the past decade, noting that 15MW turbines are available on the market.
“Experts are now predicting that turbines rated at 17MW will be commonplace by 2035,” she said, before adding that projects around floating offshore wind power would be developed “on a large scale.”
These “floating projects” required “considerable warehousing and assembly work at the wharf, requiring more spacious facilities, landside transport links within port areas and deep sea ports”.
“Several governments have identified port modernization as critical to the advancement of offshore wind energy from Taiwan to upstate New York.”
As wind turbines grow in size, the ships used to transport their components must also adapt.
Andrew Matthews – PA Pictures | Pa Pictures | Getty Images
Regarding ports, Rystad Energy’s Lysne told CNBC that the US – whose current offshore wind market is small – “would require more work as it doesn’t have the same infrastructure as Europe”.
Changes on this front appear to be imminent. Earlier in March, BP and Equinor – two companies better known as oil and gas producers – signed an agreement to convert the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into an offshore windport.
In an announcement, Equinor said the port will become “a state-of-the-art staging facility for Equinor and bp’s Empire Wind and Beacon Wind projects”. The location, it was said, is “a contact point for future offshore wind projects in the region”. Investments in infrastructure upgrades are expected to be between $200 million and $250 million.
Along the road
All of this contributes to the importance of infrastructure and logistics. Shashi Barla, global head of wind supply chain and technology at Wood Mackenzie, told CNBC that while the companies had the technology capabilities, the logistical challenges proved “very difficult.”
“It’s not like it’s anything new… we’ve been talking about logistical challenges since day one of the industry,” Barla said. “It’s that… we’re kind of approaching the tipping point today.”
Around the world, major economies are announcing plans to expand wind power capacity to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
As the size of wind turbine components increases, so do the logistical challenges facing the industry. This image from August 2021 shows the transport of a 69 meter long rotor blade in Germany.
Endrik Baublies | Istock Editorial | Getty Images
While these goals are ambitious, it is clear that they face a number of hurdles. Notwithstanding the issues related to turbine size, it will take a gargantuan effort to bring all of these installations online. There is work to be done.
“Increasingly, a lack of supporting infrastructure is recognized as a key constraining factor in the growth of the wind industry,” the GWEC report said.
“In many countries,” she added, “lack of infrastructure such as grid and transmission networks, logistics highways and ports limit wind power expansion and stifle the innovations needed to transform the energy system.”
Besides these issues, the interaction of wind turbines with wildlife is likely to be another area of important debate and discussion in the future.
Just last week, the US Department of Justice announced that a company called ESI Energy Inc had pleaded guilty to “three counts of violating the MBTA, or Migratory Bird Treaty Act.”
Wind power is poised for massive expansion over the course of the 21st century, but the road ahead is far from smooth. With the UN Secretary-General recently warning that the planet is “sleepwalking towards climate catastrophe,” the stakes couldn’t be much higher.