Common myths about offshore wind power

Wind generation is often described as intermittent, as the wind doesn’t blow continuously.

Wind turbines have been continuously developed in order to improve reliability. It is now possible to expect that offshore wind turbines will operate for over 90% of the time that they are designed to be operating. Wind turbines need to be turning to generate electricity, and wind turbines require the wind to be blowing for them to turn.

A wind turbine will produce its maximum capacity of power at a wind speed of 30km/hr. On average and at a typical offshore location, wind turbines will produce about 40% of the total energy that they could produce compared to if the turbines were operating at full capacity continuously. This is known as its load factor. The load factor of conventional fossil fueledpower stations is on average 40 to 50%. Independent studies carried out on behalf of the Department of Trade and Infrastructure in the UK, recommend locating wind turbines offshore where load capacities are reaching their design figure of 37% to 40%. Compared to 20 to 30% load factors on land.

Offshore wind power is described as expensive.

Wind cannot compete with the cost of producing electricity from an existing power plant that has already been depreciated and paid for by tax payers and consumers. At good offshore sites however it is increasingly competitive with other new build technologies, especially given the dramatic rise in oil and gas prices. Oil, which influences the price of gas, has increased from an average of $14 in 1998 to $60 in 2006.

The cost per kWh of electricity produced from wind turbines has fallen by between 9% and 17% for each doubling of capacity. For example the average cost for an onshore turbine has decreased from approximately 9.2€ cent/kWh for a 95 kW capacity turbine in the mid 1980’s to 4.4€ cent/kWh for a 2 MW machine now. Over the next year new modern offshore turbines will have capacities of 6MW each, these turbines are likely to have an average cost of xx€ cent/kWh.

For comparison, the European Commission puts the cost of new combined cycle gas generation at 3.4-4.5 €cents/kWh and combined cycle coal at 4-5 € cent/kWh. A 2004 MIT study estimated the cost of nuclear generation at 5.1 €cent/kWh.

If the external costs of damage to health and the environment from fossil fuel emissions and the disposal of nuclear waste are added in the costs of these types of generation would increase by up to 30%.

A recent study concluded that if a cost of €30 per tonne of CO2 was applied to emissions from fossil fuel power stations, wind energy would be the cheapest form of power generation in Europe.

Wind farms get subsidies from governments using tax payer’s money.

There are no subsidies or tax breaks of any kind available to offshore wind farm developers. In 2003 the Irish Government abolished the only tax scheme supporting wind farms.

If the wind farm is moved further out it will not affect its efficiency.

Deep water offshore wind is still in the research and development stage and is currently not feasible. Future deepwater windfarms in more than 30m of water will require large multi leg structures or floating platforms capable of withstanding large wave loads and storms in deeper waters. Advances in cabling technologies are also required to make such projects feasible.

A research and development project is currently under construction in 50m of water 14 miles off the Scottish coast. Two 5MW turbines will be constructed at this site using four legged lattice oil rig type foundation structures. This project has been heavily subsidised by the British government to the tune of £10 million sterling. Talisman energy the company constructing this project has said “current forecasts for electricity prices will never render this Demonstrator Project economic. It is an R&D project, not a commercial one, and as such requires public sector funding.”

All evidence makes it clear that we cannot afford to wait the 10 to 20 years it will take to make this technology viable. The mounting crisis of energy pries, security of supply and global warming can be eased with offshore wind technology available today.

Wind farms affect property prices.

A report published by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and Oxford Brookes University in the UK has found no clear relationship between the proximity of wind farms and property prices, findings repeated in other analyses. The research found no clear relationship between the proximity of wind farms and property prices, and suggested that this may be an urban myth with apparent changes in value disappearing when examined closely.

Also, in Scotland, recent research from the Edinburgh Solicitors’ Property Centre (ESPC) focusing on property sales near Crystal Rig wind farm in the Scottish Borders found no evidence of a negative impact on the price of property in nearby areas. The ESPC study found that prices in the village of Dunbar had risen from below to above the regional average over the past four years, during which time the wind farm was built, and that since the wind farm began operating, property price inflation in Dunbar has continued to exceed that achieved across East Lothian.

Offshore wind farms will affect birdlife.

A recent study carried out by the Danish government using an infrared collision-detection system developed by Denmark's National Environmental Research Institute used a heat-activated infrared video camera that watches a wind turbine around the clock, recording the paths of sea birds around turbines. The first results, released this winter as part of a comprehensive $15 million study of Denmark's large offshore wind farms, show seabirds to be remarkably adept at avoiding offshore installations. "There had been suggestions that enormous numbers of birds would be killed," says Robert Furness, a seabird specialist at the University of Glasgow, who chaired the study's scientific advisory panel. "There's a greater feeling that marine wind farms are not going to be a major ecological problem, and therefore going ahead with construction is not going to raise lots of political difficulties."