The UK is a wind-farming super-power, generating almost 30 per cent of the world’s offshore wind-generated renewable energy. And the hope is there is much more what that came from.
A quadrupling of offshore wind-farm capacity to 40 gigawatts by the end of the decade is central to the UK government’s net zero plan. By 2050, it is hoped that offshore turbines will produce 95 gigawatts and supply the largest share of the country’s electricity needs.
With the largest offshore wind development pipeline in the UK, energy company SSE is leading that charge. It is set on tripling its renewable energy generation by 2030, providing enough electricity to power 20 million homes a year—and offshore wind will provide most of the thrust.
“Offshore wind is crucial because that is where you can get the really chunky numbers,” says John Downes, SSE Renewable’s director of engineering.
The price of UK’s offshore wind power has come down far more quickly than most dared hope, and is now at all-time low. As Accenture’s Sustainability Services lead, Toby Siddall explains, commentators have consistently overestimated how long it will take for new renewable energy technologies to become economically viable.
“Economists have typically put too much weight on inertia and failure to scale, and underestimated positive feedback loops. As a market grows for a new technology, economies of scale and innovation hit the manufacturing and supply chain costs fast. It’s a snowball effect.”
We are at the point where, put simply, the transition to renewable energy makes sense not just in sustainability terms, but for brute economics. “Growing investment in renewable energy sources continues to accelerate the decline in costs in a way we typically no longer see with traditional fossil fuels,” says Siddall. “And of course, once the capital is deployed, we don’t have to continue paying for wind or sun.”
And, adds Siddall, there are other positives generated by this transition. “The UK has an opportunity to export innovation and knowhow globally,” he says. “It will bring sustainable careers to sustainable communities. But we need a just and fair transition, and this means investing in new skills and opportunities for workers in existing communities impacted by the energy transition.”
Despite all this promise, the economics of wind power are still tough. Wind farms can go up relatively quickly—part of their appeal—but the capital outlay on putting them up is eye-watering. The key is ramping up the energy they produce, and getting to those really “chunky numbers”.
“It is pure economies of scale, building far bigger wind farms, with far bigger capacity per wind turbine,” says Downes. And SSE is doing just that. Construction has begun on The Dogger Bank Wind Farm in the North Sea, 130km off the coast of north-east England.
A joint venture between SSE, the Norwegian energy company Equinor, and the Italian energy company Eni Plenitude, when complete, Dogger Bank will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm.
It will open in three phases, each employing 200 Haliade-X turbines with a diameter of 220 metres, and providing enough energy to power an average UK home for two days with every rotation. Phase A, alone covering 500km2, should start delivering power next summer, and all three phases are set to be completed in 2026.
Construction is also underway on the Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm in the Firth of Forth, an SSE joint venture with TotalEnergies, and the world’s deepest “fixed bottom” offshore site.
To get to even chunkier numbers will mean building bigger and farther out to sea, where the wind is stronger and more consistent—but it also means coming unfixed. “That’s where you get consistency in terms of the wind, but, of course, it means going deeper, which makes fixing structures to the seabed a real challenge.”
Fixing turbines to the seabed at depths below sixty metres is an engineering near-impossibility. The race is now on to develop giant turbines that sit on floating platforms, and SSE is piloting its design for such a structure.
Downes says the use of AI and data analytics is becoming increasingly important in wind farm design and engineering, and is key to taking wind farms to the next level. “We are now using to AI and digital power to optimize designs, logistics and planning construction, right the way through to getting more energy out of the wind turbines, and making sure they are facing the right weather,” he says. And, as wind farms grow bigger and move further out to sea, the use of sensors and AI will also be crucial in measuring their impact on local ecology. “It’s the difference between getting actual empirical data, and estimates and theoretical models.”
The current take on the climate emergency is a mix of alarm, urgency and optimism. But there is a growing conviction that the technological and engineering fixes are there—they just need to be invested in and scaled up. And at pace.
“I’m an engineer, so I’m bound to say this, but in terms of getting to net zero, if the motivation is there, you’ll find the technologies you need to address it,” insists Downes. However. it will, he adds, require a complex mix of technologies—and the will—to get it done. “We’re going to have to look at blue hydrogen, green hydrogen, offshore and onshore wind … solar will also be key. And at the consumer end, we need to look at energy efficiency and local solar panels—and the bit in between is batteries and smart grid systems.”
Still, the pace of positive change has, Downes says, been remarkable. “There are technologies that I wouldn’t have dreamt could be so far on in their deployment. The technology is there, you just need people who can stitch it all together.”
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
