HUGEST TURBINES TO OFFSHORE NORTH SEA

The enormity of 5 megawatt turbines is hard to grasp. One way to think about it: The floating cranes used to install the turbines are also used to build bridges.

Ironically, the Beatrice Wind Farm is in what was originally the Beatrice Offshore Oil Field, discovered by US oilman T. Boone Pickens' company and named for his wife. Now that the oil is all but played out, knowledge of the region can be used to develop a resource than will never be exhausted.

200 wind turbines plan for North Sea; Two new giant offshore generators are a glimpse of future, developers say
Robin McKie, October 14, 2007 (The (London) Observer via UK Guardian Unlimited)

WHO
Beatrice Wind Farm Project (Allan MacAskill, director); Scottish Development International (Paul O'Brien, renewable energy expert); Southern Energy; Talisman Energy

Location of the Beatrice Wind Farm. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
Engineers representing the companies preparing to install a new wind farm in the North Sea showed 2 of the huge 5 megawatt turbines to be developed in the Beatrice oil field, the largest turbines ever installed on or offshore.

WHEN
The huge turbines were unveiled in the 2nd week of October. Though they are behind schedule, the field operators hope to connect and generate electricity from the 2 demonstration turbines this year.

The turbines are so enormous they require a pair of “floating cranes” to be installed. (click to enlarge)

WHERE
The turbines are anchored to the sea floor in 150 ft deep water 15 miles off the east coast of Scotland.

WHY
- The Beatrice wind farm will have 200 of the 5 megawatt turbines.
- The towers are 300 ft above the sea level. The turbine’s 3 blades are each 200 ft long.
- The lattice work anchoring the towers to the sea floor, a major engineering challenge, is a German design. Scottish will oversee installation and do maintenance, the company’s specialties.
- Offshore windfarm placement presents problems with planning approval because of considerations about shipping lanes, seabird sanctuaries and marine life. But developers hope to diminish wind energy’s problematic intermittency by placing the farm where winds blow more regularly.

The two prototype turbines. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- MacAskill: 'We have shown this deep-water wind technology works, that it could be made to operate economically, and that it could be used to generate a significant amount of power far from shore and shipping lanes…'
- O’Brien: 'If we can build big turbines far away from the shore, they will cause minimum upset and disruption. This is their future and that is why the Beatrice project is so important…With the expertise we have gained with the Beatrice project, we can exploit winds that simply cannot be tapped by offshore turbines at present…'