Comments on: One Of Europe’s Largest Offshore Wind Farms Commissioned

By: Bill_Woods

Bill_Woods — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 18:50:00 +0000

EUR 153 million is the cost of the 30-MW, 6-turbine Phase 1.
Phase 2: EUR 812.5M for 184.5 MW (30 turbines).
Phase 3: EUR 487.5M for 110.7 MW (18 turbines).
Total: EUR 1453M for 325.2 MW (54 turbines, in 12-28 m deep water)
= 4.47 EUR/W ~= 5.8 USD/W(capacity) ~= 15 USD/W(average)

By: sault

sault — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 22:12:00 +0000

LOL, do you even read this website???

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/09/10/subscription-to-spiegel-costs-more-than-feed-in-tariff-surcharges/

By: sault

sault — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 22:10:00 +0000

The main cost difference would be the deeper water farther out in the ocean unless there is a small underwater ridge under the wind farm. Deeper water means harder turbine installation and increased design requirements of the tower.

By: Wayne Williamson

Wayne Williamson — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 21:52:00 +0000

It seems like the main gist of the video is a single large structure that is the point where all the energy from the turbines run through(I think). Granted for such along run(35km) maybe thats the reason. Just doesn’t seem like good engineering having a single point of failure….

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 17:30:00 +0000

It’s the taxes, not
the renewable energy supplements that create high German electricity
costs. High electricity prices were around long before renewables and
closing nuclear came on the scene.

In 2012 solar lowered the cost of wholesale electricity by 5 billion euros.

Had renewables not been on line the cost of electricity would have risen higher based on the cost of fossil fuels.

Here’s what is happening to the wholesale and industrial price of electricity in Germany. Those savings are not being passed on to retail customers. Changes are in place to turn that problem around and retail prices should start dropping in the next year.

By: Steeple

Steeple — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 17:11:00 +0000

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-18/german-power-premium-most-since-98-tests-voters-energy-markets.html

By: Ivor O'Connor

Ivor O'Connor — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 16:25:00 +0000

These high voltage submarine cables are interesting. Does anybody have the specs to them? Currently I don’t know how they work, how they connect, what type of problems they are likely to encounter. What type of maintenance schedules. Can more wind turbines be added to the cables.

It seems there was something along these lines that has or was going to be put in place off the east coast. A HVDC cable running in the ocean acting as a backbone for future RE growth. I wonder how that relates to this…

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 16:15:00 +0000

I wonder if the 153 million was for the cable?

It would be interesting to see how much extra it cost due to placing the farm further offshore. I’m sure the same issues are going to arise here in the US. Especially with Great Lakes wind farms.

A bit more travel time to the construction site and a bit more cable. Probably a bit larger diameter cable to keep line losses acceptable. Most routine maintenance will probably be done by helicopter so the extra travel distance won’t add much.

By: Frederik

Frederik — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 16:06:00 +0000

According to De Morgen (http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/5397/Milieu/article/detail/1662649/2013/07/03/C-Power-voltooit-windmolenpark-op-Thorntonbank.dhtml) the cost is in fact 1,3 billion euros rather than 153 million. I’m not complaining, however, I it is probably an acceptable price for such a large-scale green energy project.
The only thing that is unfortunate, is that the windmills off the Belgian coast could have been placed closer to the coast line, which would have been cheaper, and that it was decided not to do this because of people complaining that it would ruin their view. As if fighting climate change is not more important than that.