Contributions to an Electrical and Economic Assessment of Offshore Wind Energy in Shallow Waters: Application to a Portuguese Site

It is now apparent that offshore wind farms will become an important source of electricity to explore further in the near future, providing an increasing integration of the seas. Therefore, new challenges concerning the electrical network design, the operation of offshore wind farms with large installed capacities, and their economic aspects are expected to arise. The main target of this paper is to present and discuss the main steps towards an electrical and economic assessment of offshore wind energy in shallow waters. The methodologies are applied to an offshore wind farm case study, composed of 54 V112‐3 MW wind turbines located in the Portuguese coastal zone at 20 to 40 m depth and about 10 km from the shore. From an electrical point of view, the main technical options are revised, and the basic options are made regarding the configuration and design of the collection and transmission systems. A financial analysis is also conducted after the energy yield computation and the identification of the CAPEX and OPEX cost components are performed. A comparative study using the Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) currently in force in eight European countries is carried out, enabling the conclusion that the Belgium and UK support