Assessment of yearly available days for wind turbine installation in the western sea of Taiwan. Offshore wind farm has been commercially operated in Europe over 3. GW capacities in 2011 and will be targeted upon 150 GW in 2030. Wind speeds were measured at 15 m above the sea surface in a water depth of 30 m.
Assessment of yearly available days for wind turbine installation in the western sea of Taiwan. Offshore wind farm has been commercially operated in Europe over 3. GW capacities in 2011 and will be targeted upon 150 GW in 2030. Wind speeds were measured at 15 m above the sea surface in a water depth of 30 m.
Assessment of yearly available days for wind turbine installation in the western sea of Taiwan. Offshore wind farm has been commercially operated in Europe over 3. GW capacities in 2011 and will be targeted upon 150 GW in 2030. Wind speeds were measured at 15 m above the sea surface in a water depth of 30 m.
wind turbine installation in the western sea of Taiwan
Hsiang-Chih Chan, Meng-Hung Chang, Ai-Tsz Liu, Cheng-Hsien Chung, Chen-Hsing-Cheng, Forng-Chen Chiu Ship and Ocean Industries R&D Center 14F, No. 27, Sec. 2, Zhongzheng E. Road, Tamsui Dist., 2517 New Taipei City, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Abstract- Offshore wind farm is a renewable energy that has been commercially operated in Europe over 3.8 GW capacities in 2011 and will be targeted upon 150 GW in 2030. Taiwan also plans to install 3 GW offshore wind farms in 2030. Thus, a number of condition assessments and engineering designs are being studied, such as the site selection, the wind turbines layout, the environmental impact assessment, the maritime engineering, the installation and maintenance fleets. In this paper, we carried out the winds and waves as the critical conditions of sea status for the installation of offshore wind turbines. The winds and waves data were collected by a data buoy which was deployed near the entrance of Taichung Harbor. The wind speeds were measured at 15 m above the sea surface. In the case study, we assumed a jack- up vessel will be used for installation of wind turbines. Then, some benchmarking conditions are filled into the assessment. For example, the conditions for operated criteria were suggested as wind speeds below 15 m/s and significant wave heights below 1.5 m in a water depth of 30 m. Moreover, a continuous working duration is considered as 15 hours for installation of a wind turbine from a tower, a nacelle, and blades. Eventually, the yearly available days for the wind turbine installation were assessed about 175 days. Different working modes, such as piling, cable laying, and maintenance, were discussed those yearly available days as well. From the operation and maintenance (O&M) supporting vessels working days (260 days), an offshore wind farm owned 50 wind turbines and each needs maintenance of 260 hours every year that was a benchmark scenario. The supporting vessels require 6 at least that had been estimated. I. INTRODUCTION Offshore wind farm is more economic than the other renewable energy, and it thus becomes extremely developing engineering and technology in the recent years. The commercially operated capacities for offshore wind turbines in Europe have been carried out over 3.8 GW in 2011, and will be targeted upon 150 GW in 2030 [1]. Taiwan also plans to install 3 GW offshore wind farms in 2030. Thus, a number of condition assessments and engineering designs are being studied, such as the site selection, the wind turbines layout, the environmental impact assessment, the maritime engineering, the installation and maintenance fleets. We know that a number of successful experiences on offshore wind farm in Europe, such as offshore engineering and wind turbines, jack- up vessels, power grids and substations. However, some nature disasters increase the risks of the offshore wind farms in Taiwan, for example there were 3-4 typhoons struck Taiwan every year that is not a momentous risk of maritime engineering in Europe. Reference [2] indicated that the wind turbines have to consider the loads during a typhoon eye-wall passage, which carries very high wind speeds and various wind directions. The design and manufacture of blade, tower, and foundation can increase a higher safer factor, but the cost will be expanded as well. A challenge to the development of offshore wind farms is the sea conditions. Because the wind energy in the offshore wind farm had been assessed enough before developing, this is also meaning the high wind-driven waves occurred frequently. Moreover, the monsoon starts to affect Taiwan in October and continuously impact until the next March. So the high sea status is the main limitation of construction on the offshore wind farms, which is discussed in this study. We consider the winds and waves as the critical conditions of sea status for the installation of offshore wind turbines. The scenario is assumed a jack-up vessel will be used for installation of wind turbines and assessed available working days limited by the wind speeds and the significant wave heights. We demonstrate the data of winds and waves collected by a data buoy, which are represented the sea status in the offshore wind farms in the western sea of Taiwan. In addition, we carried out the statistical results for yearly available days, which is able to estimate the annual installation numbers of wind turbines as well. II. DATA COLLECTION Before construction of offshore wind farms, the ambient environments need data collections for engineering assessment and feasibility study. In this study, we used the data of winds and waves measured by a data buoy, which was deployed for a long-term by the Institute of Harbor and Marine Technology (IHMT), the Department of Transportation. A. Location of measurement A data buoy attached with an anemometer and a wave gauge, which was deployed near the entrance of Taichung Harbor. The exactly deployed position of the buoy is 120E 28.54', 24N 18.00', which was illustrated in Fig. 1. The water depth of buoy deployment was about 25 m deep. There are many potential offshore wind farms distributed in the western sea of Taiwan, and the buoy was closed to those offshore wind farms shown as Fig. 1 as well. Thus, the data of winds and waves were represented as the sea conditions in those wind farms for this study. 978-1-4673-5948-1/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE
Figure 1. A buoy for data collection of winds and waves was deployed near the entrance of Taichung Harbor, which is the second largest harbor in Taiwan. Many potential offshore wind farms are also marked in this map.
B. Wind and wave data The wind speeds and directions were measured by an anemometer at 15 m height above the sea surface. Wind data were collected and calculated as hourly average of wind speeds from 2005 to the end of 2010, which were presented in the top panel of Fig.2. The significant increasing of wind speeds has high correlations with the effects of typhoons and monsoons. The typhoons occurred timeline in the middle of Fig.2 were from the disseminated alerts of typhoon by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) of Taiwan. There were totally 34 typhoons struck Taiwan during 2005-2010. The hourly significant wave heights are also shown in the bottom panel of Fig. 2. The curves gaps of wind speeds and significant wave heights might be due to instrument breakdown and repair. The best yearly data received rates on anemometer and wave gauge were above 99%. The monthly losses in hourly data of winds and waves have statistical results shown in Fig. 3. The monthly total loss data were divided by 24 hours, which is represented by days in the vertical axis. While the monthly data lost in few days, for example from January to September in 2007, which might be caused by instrument itself. Another situation was instrument
Figure 2. Top panel is the hourly average of wind speeds from 2005 to the end of 2010. Middle timeline is the typhoons struck dates. Bottom panel is the hourly significant wave heights. The curves gaps mean data lost.
Figure 3.Statistical days of monthly data loss on winds and waves collected in 2005-2010.
breakdown and needed to repair, such as the wave data loss from September 2008 to the next June. III. ASSESSMENT METHOD The wind farm installation vessels might have multiple working purposes that are like transportation, assembly and installation of wind turbine [3]. Jack-up vessels design is suit for those requirements. Reference [4] reported that a third generation installation vessel can operate in significant wave heights of 2.5 m. We know that some criteria of operation and survival conditions for vessel design are relative to wind speeds and significant wave heights. For example, jack-up vessel MPI Resolution is able to transport 10 wind turbines of 3.5 MW and operates in maximum depths of 35 m, wave heights of 3.0 m, and wind speeds of 15.3 m/s [3]. We demonstrated a study case for assessment of yearly available working days by a jack-up vessel, which might be purposed to operate in the western sea of Taiwan. The benchmark is describing as following: The maximum operation water depth is 30 m; the maximum wind speeds are 15 m/s; the maximum significant wave heights are 1.5 m. Moreover, significant wave heights of 2.5 m are considered as a survival condition in the sea status.
Figure 4.Demonstration of wind speeds and significant wave heights are used for assessment of yearly available days with the limited conditions of 15 m/s wind speeds and 1.5 m significant wave heights.
Figure 5. Top panel is yearly available days from the statistic results by the limited conditions of wind speeds of 15 m/s and significant wave heights of 1.5 m. Bottom panel is yearly data loss of winds and waves for looking over the available days.
When we concerned the wind speeds and wave heights for the assessment, both of those data had to be exactly received and filled in Fig. 4. In Fig. 4, the scatter plots of hourly average of wind speeds and significant wave heights indicate that their correlations were positive but not high actually. Thus, both of data should be evaluated simultaneously in this assessment. The red box shows the limitation of wind speeds of 15 m/s and significant wave heights of 1.5 m. Another important criterion was the continuous working hours, which was considered as 15 hours for the installation of offshore wind turbines here. Fig. 5 is the results by above limited conditions. Top panel of Fig.5 indicated the totally yearly available days and the largest was about 175 days occurred in 2007; the similar days in 2010 as well. The total days is calculated by the cumulative available hours divided by 24 hours. We had observed that available days in 2008 and 2009 were below 100, and thus we looked over the data loss between winds and waves shown in bottom panel of Fig. 5. While the data losses were increased, the available days were decrease that is a pitfall of assessment. However, the maximum yearly available days of 175 were acceptable, because this is better than the assessment of approximate 120 days (4 months) in the northern Europe reported by reference [4].
Figure 6. Demonstration of available durations and continuous days distributions was corresponding with Fig. 5. TABLE I AVAILABLE DAYS WITH DIFFERENT WORKING MODES Working modes Limited conditions Available days Wind speeds (m/s) Sig. wave heights (m) Working hours Wind turbine installation by jack-up vessel 15 1.5 15 175 Jack-up vessel survivability 25 2.5 - 266 Piling 10 2.0 12 190 Cable laying* - 2.0 - 234 O&M supporting vessels - 2.5 8 260 * needs more conditions, such as the DP (dynamic positioning) spec and sea currents limitations.
IV. DISCUSSIONS We carried out a study case on the assessment of yearly available days for installation of offshore wind turbines by a jack-up vessel. However, the actually available working dates could be displayed in Fig. 6. A very clear feature in the assessment is the available durations often occurred between April and October in 2005-2010 and the longest continuous days were over 18 days. If it can avoid the typhoon effects, we believe those continuous days should be extensive possibly. Moreover, there were a couple of available dates during monsoons (i.e., October to the next March) and those days might be prepared for the maintenance of offshore wind farm. Offshore wind farm generally needs various vessels for different engineering and construction, such as survey, transportation, installation, maintenance, and inspection. During the phase of survey and construction for an offshore wind farm is 1-5 years approximately. A lifecycle of offshore wind farm is usually over 20 years [5]. The cost estimation and risk assessment are key factors for the design of maritime engineering and the arrangement of the installation and maintenance fleets. In the previous chapter, we demonstrated the yearly available days for a jack-up vessel to installation of wind turbines. If a wind turbine needs 3 days for installation of a tower, a nacelle, and blades, a jack-up vessel may install a few tens offshore wind turbines at least in one year. It is also important for the survivability of a jack-up vessel, especially a jack-up vessel may transport between offshore wind farms and ports during the high sea status. Thus, more studied cases of working mode with various vessels were analyzed in Tab. I. Under the survival conditions of a jack-up vessel, the available days was 266. In addition, the available working days for the vessels of piling, cable laying, and maintenance had been assessment as well. Cable laying vessels need ROV (remotely operated vehicle) to trench or inspect and thus DP (dynamic positioning) are usually required. DP ability is limited the sea currents, waves, and winds. The criteria in Tab. I on a cable laying vessel neglect DP specifications and sea currents. The limitation of operation and maintenance (O&M) supporting vessels are significant wave heights of 2.5 and working hours of 8, which obtained yearly available days of 260. To assume an offshore wind farm owned 50 wind turbines and each needs maintenance of 260 hours every year. Eventually, we can estimate that supporting vessels require 6 at least. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Economic Affairs for the project support. The authors also thank the Institute of Harbor and Marine Technology for providing the data of winds and waves and the Central Weather Bureau for typhoons information. REFERENCES [1] K. Veum, L. Cameron, D. H. Hernando, M. Korps, Roadmap to the deployment of offshore wind energy in the Central and Southern North Sea (2020 - 2030), Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), July 2011. [2] S. Ott, Extreme Winds in the Western North Pacific, Ris-R-1544(EN) Ris National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark, 2006. [3] J. Bard and F. Thalemann, Offshore Infrastructure: Ports and Vessels, WaveEnergy Centre. [4] H. Wedel, Installation vessel concept for wind turbines, WRTSIL Technical Journal In Detail, Issue No. 2, pp. 36-40, 2011. [5] J.R. Nedwell, and D.Howell, A review of offshore windfarm related underwater noise sources, Subacoustech Report ref: 544R0308, 57 pp, 2004.