Long and windy road What is the glue that will hold the pieces together as we plan for 40 GW of offshore wind in and around the North Sea region in 2020?

THE IDEA of a supergrid connecting offshore wind farms in the North Sea with a multiple number of countries is a concept being quietly supported by politicians and pushed by industry groups like Friends of the Supergrid. But how can an offshore supergrid be realised in practice, on the technical sid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRenewable energy focus Vol. 12; no. 6; pp. 60 - 64
Main Author Williamson, Kari
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.12.2011
Subjects
Construction
Electric cables
electricity
industry
North Sea
Offshore
Offshore engineering
Offshore structures
planning
Substations
wind
Wind power generation
Northern European region
North Sea
ANE, North Sea
ANE, Europe
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Summary:THE IDEA of a supergrid connecting offshore wind farms in the North Sea with a multiple number of countries is a concept being quietly supported by politicians and pushed by industry groups like Friends of the Supergrid. But how can an offshore supergrid be realised in practice, on the technical side? As more and more offshore wind farms are built in Northern Europe, the question of transmission becomes increasingly important. Not just in terms of cables and substation build-out, but also how the wind parks will be connected to shore, and resultant electricity traded across countries. A Northern European supergrid, which could effectively create a trading system delivering offshore wind generated-power between different countries is a compelling idea. But technically, this is a mighty – and expensive – challenge.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1755-0084(11)70157-0
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1755-0084
1878-0229
DOI:10.1016/S1755-0084(11)70157-0