Offshore Floating Wind Farms – Lots of Issues

Mavens gather and pass on information – so here are some of the many interesting links emerging on Offshore Floating Wind Power

Did you know that June 15 is Global Wind Day?

There is great pressure to de-carbonise our world, to combat climate change, and we certainly need breakthrough technologies. And if we needed a wake-up call, the loss of all the 2022-2023  season of Emperor Penguin chicks in Antarctica from drowning due to the loss of sea ice is horrifying – 1, 2, .

And so, along with other areas around the Australian coastline, there is a floating offshore wind zone proposal for the Illawarra, as part of our national decarbonisation initiatives. This has all been framed under Establishing Offshore Infrastructure, while the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021 – largely covers the legal framework for establishing offshore wind farm projects but not the technical aspects.

There are many aspects to consider in regard to such offshore wind farm projects. What might these be? Some can be found in this Wikipedia article. 

Could there be up to 300 wind turbines of height 260 metres extending along the Illawarra coastline from Wombarra to just south of Kiama ?  And in Europe they are now proposing floating offshore wind turbines of 360 metres in height. See the proposed zone below.

So far there have been Blue Float’s South Pacific proposal, Oceanex proposals for Illawarra and also the Spark Renewables Proposal. Note there has also been a proposal for the Hunter – though the Hunter offshore wind zone has been scaled back.

Introduction to Offshore Floating Wind Turbines & Their Issues 

There is a lot more to offshore floating wind turbine issues going way beyond the visual impacts and migrating whales. Wikipedia is always worth reading as a starting point when wanting to learn about a new issue – see an overview of Offshore Wind Power and Offshore Floating Wind Turbines . So its quote is interesting “the economics that allowed the deployment of thousands of offshore oil rigs have yet to be demonstrated for floating wind turbine platforms”.

If you don’t want to read too much about issues for Offshore Wind Towers then read ANAVO’s article on Australias’ 5 Core Challenges for its Burgeoning Offshore Wind Industry which includes:

1. Infrastructure Readiness
2. Costs
3. Environmental Impact
4. Experience / Workforce Shortage
5. Maintenance

Bulli Times shared on Community Consultation sessions on Illawarra Windtowers Project, and also published my Opinion Piece – Are We There Yet? which covered critical issues to be addressed on Offshore Floating Wind Towers. There are also some commonalities between the ANAVO article and the Bulli Times post.

There’s a lot of complexity in offshore wind turbines as seen in the diagram I’ve drawn up  on some of the issues – see below and also the list that follows:

Links to Notes on some of these aspects can be found at these links:

• Overview of Offshore Wind Farms & Illawarra Proposals
• Illawarra Wind Farm Proposal Timeline
• Government – Australia, NSW, Victoria, Local Governments’ role
• DCCEEW Key Environmental Factors and Impacts
• Advocates for Wind Farms projects
• Australian Projects – NSW, Victoria
• Overseas Projects
• Pro’s and Con’s – Forecasts
• Visual Impacts – Visual Amenity & Connection to “Place”
• Financial, Insurance & Supply Chain Issues
• Adverse Weather Impacts
• Cooperation or Not – Navigation, Fishing, Sailing – Yachting, Surfing, Hang Gliding – Paragliding
• Civil Aviation Issues
• Wildlife Impacts including Birdlife on the Five Islands Nature Reserve
• Marine Life and Underwater Natural Impacts – Whales, Fishing, Benthic/Seabed
• WHS/ OHS – Safety & Risk – Incidents, Fatalities & Proactive Measures
• Technical Issues
  • How  Offshore Floating Wind Turbines Work – Designs
  • Studies – LIDAR
  • Challenges of Deeper Water & Further Offshore
  • Certifications & Standards – eg British Standards, Lloyds Register
  • Siting Exploration, Construction and Materials Issues
  • Operational Issues
  • Cables – Electrical and Support – EMF impacts on Marine Life
  • Damage & Risks – Impact, Corrosion, Erosion, Fatigue, Severe Weather,  Fire
    • Corrosion, Erosion & Protective Coatings in Marine Industrial & Offshore Wind Farm Applications
  • Maintenance, Monitoring & Inspection
  • Decommissioning
• Hydrogen Economy – Port Kembla Energy Terminal  –  Blue Economy
• Nuclear – Some suggest that Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMR’s) might provide an alternative path to renewables to decarbonise our world. Is that feasible – when – what are the costs and issues? Click here for comments on SMR’s and issues.

Do you have useful links on windtowers? – please add a comment in the Reply section for this post!