Vattenfall Selects Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone O&M Base
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Vattenfall has selected Peel Ports as the preferred bidder, and its port at Great Yarmouth as the location for the operations and maintenance base of the Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone in the UK.
This was said about the competition to host the facility.
Vattenfall said that the competition was fierce to secure the agreement with an excellent bid from Lowestoft and Associated British Ports. With both ports offering excellent services it is clear that East Anglia’s potential as a superpower of offshore wind is secure.
I have a few thoughts.
Lowestoft In Suffolk And Great Yarmouth In Norfolk Must Work Together
This Google Map shows the coast between the two ports.
Note.
- Great Yarmouth is at the top of the map.
- Lowestoft is at the bottom of the map.
- The two towns are less than twelve miles apart.
- The Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour, is towards the top of the map.
The Google Map shows the port in more detail.
Note.
- Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour only opened in 2009.
- It has an average depth of 10 metres.
- It was planned as a container port, but the ships didn’t materialise.
- Some consider it to be a bit of a white elephant.
Could the Outer Harbour be used to assemble floating wind turbines?
I think it could but at present, there are no plans to use floating wind turbines off the coast of Norfolk.
I suspect though, if someone decided to build floating wind farms to the East of the Vattenfall’s Norfolk Zone fields, that Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour could be used to assemble the floating wind turbines.
This Google Map shows the Port of Lowestoft.
Note.
- There is over a kilometre of quays.
- It doesn’t have the water depth of Great Yarmouth.
- There is a lot of brownfield sites along the River Waveney.
- The East Anglia One wind farm is managed from Lowestoft.
Both harbours have their good and bad points.
- Both have good rail connections to Norwich.
- Lowestoft has a rail connection to Ipswich and has been promised a London service.
- Road connections to Ipswich and Norwich need improvement.
I suspect that it was a close contest, as to the port that got the Vattenfall contract.
A Lowestoft And Great Yarmouth Rail Connection
This map from Open RailwayMap between the two towns.
Note.
- The existing railways are shown in yellow.
- Former railways are shown in black dotted lines.
- There was even a railway along the coast.
The only rail connection between the ports is via Reedham, where the track layout is shown on this second OpenRailwayMap.
Note.
- Reedham station is in the North West corner on the line to Norwich.
- The line going North-East goes to Great Yarmouth.
- The line going South goes to Lowestoft.
There used to be a chord connecting Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, but it was cancelled by Beeching’s grandfather.
There is certainly scope to improve the rail connection between the two ports.
- There could be a convenient change at Reedham, if the timetables were adjusted.
- Trains could reverse at Reedham.
- The chord could be reopened to allow direct trains.
It wouldn’t be the most challenging rail project to have an hourly rail service between the two ports.
A Lowestoft And London Rail Service
This was promised with a frequency of something like four trains per day (tpd)
I think it should run between London and Yarmouth with a reverse at Lowestoft.
Hydro-Storage Options To Be Studied For Grängesberg
The title of this post, is the same as that of this news item from Anglesey Mining.
These are the highlights of the news item.
- Anglesey Mining plc, together with its 49.75% owned subsidiary Grängesberg Iron AB (“GIAB”) have entered into an MoU with Mine Storage to investigate the potential for the Grängesberg Mine to be converted into a Pumped Hydro-Storage project at the end of the mine’s producing life.
- Pumped-Hydro Storage is a green-energy storage solution that utilises water and gravity to store electrical energy. An underground mine can provide a closed-loop solution using proven, pumped hydro-power technology. Essentially, the system involves water being gravity fed through pipes down a shaft into the turbines, which produce electricity for supply to the grid and also pump the water back to surface. The mine storage system has a high round-trip efficiency of 75-85% and proven durability.
- The MoU with Mine Storage could lead to numerous future benefits.
I like this project.
Too often, when mines, quarries or other large operations come to the end of their economic lives, they are just abandoned in the hope that something worthwhile will happen.
But here we have a company planning the end of an iron ore mine in a way that will turn it into a source of future revenue.
I have a few thoughts.
Mine Storage
Mine Storage are a Swedish company with an informative web site.
The web site answered most of my questions.
Mines Are Moving From a Liability To A Resource
Consider.
- Gravitricity are using mines to store energy using cables and weights.
- Charlotte Adams and her team at Durham University are developing the use of the heat in abandoned coal mines.
- The Global Centre of Rail Excellence is being developed in a disused opencast mine in Wales.
- RheEnergise are developing their first High Density Hydro system in the Hemerdon Tungsten Mine in Devon.
And now we have this co-operation between Anglesey Mining and Mine Storage working together on pumped storage hydroelectricity.
Where is Grängesberg
This Google Map shows the location of Grängesberg.
It is convenient for storing energy for Stockholm.
SSE, Marubeni & CIP’s Floating Wind Farm In Scotland Could Have 270 Turbines And 6 Offshore Substations
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
SSE Renewables, Marubeni and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) have submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Scoping Report for the array area of their Ossian floating wind farm to Marine Scotland. According to the report, the wind farm could have up to 270 wind turbines and six offshore substations.
Ossian floating wind farm will be one of the world’s largest floating wind farms.
- If it sticks to 3.6 GW, 270 turbines will mean 13 MW turbines.
- 14 MW would be 3.8 GW and 15 MW would be 4 GW, with the same number of turbines.
- If they stick to 3.6 GW, this could be 257 x 14 MW or 240 x 15 MW turbines.
- Knowing ambitious engineers as I do and given that 15 MW turbines are on the way, I wouldn’t be surprised to see 15 MW turbines, to get the full 4 GW.
- According to this press release from Siemens Gamesa, they can make the turbine blades for their 15 MW turbines in Hull.
These two paragraphs outline the design possibilities.
For the floating wind turbine foundations, the consortium is considering either semi-submersible or Tension Leg Platform (TLP) structures and three mooring configurations; catenary, semi taut and taut mooring lines. Anchoring options currently under consideration include driven piles, and a number of different embedded anchor types, including suction piles, Drag Embedment Anchors (DEA) and VLA, with up to nine anchors required per foundation.
Floating foundations might not only be used for the wind turbines, but also for Ossian’s offshore substations.
When I look at a project like this, I also think of the project management possibilities.
- Will the six offshore sub-stations be positioned, so that as turbines are installed, they can be commissioned and start generating electricity?
- Is there software to optimise the order of installation?
- Has a specialist project management system been written for wind farms?
If you need a program to do analyse anything like that, buy me a drink and we’ll talk about it.
It’s about time, some of the algorithms in my brain were put to use.
The article also says this.
The 3.6 GW Ossian floating wind farm is planned to be up and running before the end of the decade.
My experience tells me, that if the right philosophy is used, that estimated date could be beaten.
It’s just that it is a project with so many complexities, that a proper mathematical model of its construction would yield benefits.
The Anonymous Widower 