Cost and Potential of Offshore Wind Energy on the Dutch part of the North Sea

With the growing attention for offshore wind energy seen today there is a need for a sophisticated, quantitative investigation of the opportunities for offshore wind energy. The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has therefore developed a computer program named OWECOP. The program couples a Geographic Information System (GIS database) with an Excel spreadsheet program. The GIS database contains relevant properties of the water area like ambient wind speed, dimensioning wave height, water depth, and distance to shore. The Excel spreadsheet program includes different engineering models to calculate the cost of the turbine, for the support structure, electrical infrastructure, transport, installation and operation and maintenance. The gross energy yield and overall efficiency of the farm are also calculated with Excel. After user defined choices have been made for the type of turbine, the farm lay out and the economic parameters, the cost and potential of wind energy in the water area can be calculated in Excel, based on the site-specific information in the GIS database. The transfer of information from the GIS database to the Excel calculation models goes automatically. Investigations have been done for the Netherlands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the North Sea. It takes several hours to complete one run. The OWECOP cost models are currently further improved in order to deal with some recognised deficiencies and will be finished by the end of 2001. Analysis for other European waters is envisaged.