HAMBURG (dpa) – A German wind power company recently announced plans for a wind generator park in the Baltic Sea in the latest sign of the new direction which the wind energy sector is now looking – offshore.
The reason is that slowly but surely, after the strong expansion of wind generation parks over the past decade, Germany is starting to run out of space for suitable wind-power sites.
As two lobby groups, the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) and the German Wind Energy Institute (Dewi), now explain, wind generator manufacturers are bracing for a slowdown from the robust expansion.
“The strong growth of wind energy use, in Germany has gradually reached the saturation stage,” Wilhelmshaven-based Dewi said in a recent newsletter, noting how the number of sites approved for wind generation parks is starting to be used up.
There are two alternatives facing the wind generator makers and wind park operators. One is to look for export markets for German wind generation technology, and the other is to look offshore, particularly because of the superior wind conditions out at sea.
“The question now is whether wind energy use in the offshore area can become a new option…” Dewi’s newsletter said. “For the German wind energy industry this situation in any case means that their activities will shift towards other, new markets.”
Germany is the world leader in terms of overall installed capacity of wind power generators. At mid-2000, according to the alternative energy newsletter “New Energy”, Germany had 8,370 wind turbines in operation with an installed capacity of 4,970 megawatts.
By comparison, the United States was second at mid-year with a total 2,733 MW, followed by Spain at 2,046 MW, Denmark with 1,905 MW and India with 1,091 MW.
By year’s end, Germany’s installed wind capacity is projected to reach 6,000 MW. But room inside Germany for commercially viable wind power sites is running out. There is also increasing opposition to wind-power parks from various groups with different agendas.
For example, travel industry officials complain that the windmills are starting to hurt tourism in some areas where more and more wind generators are changing the landscape.
Some people say windmills are an eyesore, while nature preservationists cite the danger to birds, increasing numbers of which are being killed by wind generators.
Local residents complain of the noise and the disturbing strobe- light effect of the huge windmill blades, some of them now reaching a rotational diameter of 57 metres.
So the rationale for offshore sites is becoming more convincing, and a number of German wind power companies are now examining potential projects far out at sea, industry reports say.
One project could be that of the Umweltkontor Renewable Energy company which is working on feasibility and environmental impact studies for a site in the Baltic Sea, northeast of the island of Ruegen.
There, 69 wind power generators would provide a total installed capacity of 350 MW. Company officials are confident that authorities will approve the site, since the site is already being exploited for industrial purposes, in the mining of gravel.
The Umweltkontor company noted the strong potential for offshore sites in the wind generation industry.
“Offshore projects with a production volume of up to 1,000 MW open up new dimensions for renewable energies,” it said, using a figure which compares to, or even surpasses, the capacity of a nuclear power plant and which roughly covers the needs of 500,000 households.
A recent article in the weekly Die Zeit noted two further potential offshore wind power projects, with both of these in the 1,000 MW range, and both in Germany’s North Sea region.
One project, envisaged by the Winkra wind power company, would involve 200 wind generators some 50 kilometres offshore from the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein. The other, by the Prokon company, foresees 200 wind generators further out to sea, some 100 kilometres north of the East Frisian coastline.
But there are number of hurdles, both technological and bureaucratic, which would have to be cleared before such offshore projects and be realised.
On the technology side, all three of the offshore projects are based on wind generators with a capacity of upwards of 5 MW each.
The catch is that such generators do not even exist yet. The most powerful wind generator now available is at only half that capacity, a 2.5 MW unit built by the Borsig company. But various firms are now starting to test 3-MW prototype wind generators.
On the bureaucratic side, potential offshore windpark operators will have to get clearance for their projects from a whole range of authorities, including merchant shipping, environmental, tourism, transportation and defence agencies and ministries.
“Before a windmill can start turning, the mills of bureaucracy do the churning,” commented Die Zeit about the bureaucratic hurdles which offshore windparks would have to clear.
