GE’s Recently Unveiled 18 MW Wind Turbine To Spin Offshore Japan
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
The three consortia that Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) selected in the country’s second round of offshore wind auctions will use some of the biggest and most powerful wind turbines on/coming to the market – Vestas V236-15 MW and GE’s 18 MW Haliade-X.
Wind farms under construction or in pre-construction in the UK, as I write this post, include.
- Neart Na Gaoithe – 8 MW x 54 – 450 MW
- Sofia Offshore Wind Farm – 14 MW x 100 – 1400 MW
- Dogger Bank A – 13 MW x 95 – 1235 MW
- Moray West – 15 MW x 60 – 882 MW
- Dogger Bank B – 13 MW x 95 – 1235 MW
- Dogger Bank C – 14 MW x 87 – 1218 MW
- East Anglia Three – 14 MW x 95 – 1372 MW
- Hornsea Three – xx MW x 231 – 2852 MW
Note.
- I can’t find the turbine size for Hornsea Three.
- This article on The Telgraph is entitled Ørsted Asks For More Government Cash Amid Doubts Over Flagship Wind Farm Project, says that Ørsted and Claire Coutinho are talking.
- The total power is 10644 MW.
- There are a total of 817 turbines.
- This is an average turbine size of almost exactly 13 MW.
There would appear to be scope to increase the size of these wind farms by using the new larger turbines.
Just uprating the turbines to 15 MW would increase capacity by 15 %.
The frequency of stories like these are increasing.
Crown Estate Mulls Adding 4 GW Of Capacity From Existing Offshore Wind Projects
Vattenfall Boosts Capacity For Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone
Three Steps To Unlocking The Potential Of High-Power Wind Turbines
Ossian Floating Wind Farm Could Have Capacity Of 3.6 GW
Developers are seriously thinking of building or upgrading wind farms with larger turbines and other capacity-increasing technology.
The Proof Of The Pudding
In A December Treat For £3.70, I talked about buying English strawberries in Marks & Spencer in December.
I said I’d post again, when I ate them.
This picture shows the pack on a plate.
And this a close-up of a single strawberry, which cost 37 pence.
I’m afraid the photos don’t do justice to their taste, as they were definitely some of the best strawberries, I’ve ever eaten.
I did buy another two punnets this morning, to see me through the weekend.
Dyson Farming has a web page, which describes how they produce the strawberries.
The page contains an explanatory video, which is well worth a watch.
Will developments like this be the future of farming?
Floating Solar Not Yet Up to Par To Be Brought Into Offshore Wind Tenders, Says BP’s Benelux Head Of Offshore Wind
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
System integration is what is needed for the next leap in offshore wind, however, not all technologies that can integrate with offshore wind farms have the same starting point. Floating solar still has some way to go in becoming more resilient to harsh offshore conditions. On the other hand, hydrogen is a more ready option with plenty of support from the industry, but it needs to be included and clearly defined in offshore wind tenders.
These two paragraphs describe the views of Frank Oomen, Head of Offshore Wind Benelux at BP.
This is according to Frank Oomen, Head of Offshore Wind Benelux at BP, who discussed financial and qualitative criteria in offshore wind auctions during the Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference 2023 (OEEC 2023).
Speaking about recently joining BP from the renewables industry, Oomen pointed out that, with offshore wind becoming larger scale, it needs to move in the direction of system integration and become an integrated energy business itself.
I had a lot of my engineering education, in ICI’s world of integrated chemical plants and I believe that Frank Oomen’s views are heading in the right direction.
If we take Frank Oomen’s views to their logical conclusion, we will see the following.
- Clusters of wind farms far from land in productive wind power areas.
- A nearby electrolyser will be producing hydrogen.
- The hydrogen will be taken to the shore by pipeline or tanker.
- BP with their oil and gas heritage, have been doing this for decades.
BP might even have some redundant gas infrastructure they can repurpose.
Guardian To Use Hydrogen In Its Glass Manufacturing
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Glass International.
These two paragraphs introduce the application.
Ryze Hydrogen has signed a long-term deal to provide hydrogen to flat glass manufacturer, Guardian Glass
Ryze will supply hydrogen to be used in the manufacture of float glass, which is used in everything from car windscreens and windows in buildings to mirrors and furniture.
This extract from the article explains how the hydrogen is used.
It will be used as a technical gas during the float glass process.
Chris Duguid, Plant Manager from Guardian Glass, said: “We are really pleased to be starting this partnership with Ryze.
“Hydrogen is vital to our float glass production process. Hydrogen is used to create an oxygen-free environment as a blanket to avoid oxidation of the tin onto which we float molten glass.
“As this is needed 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year, it is absolutely critical that we partner with a reliable supplier, which is what we have with Ryze.”
This Wikipedia section, describes the manufacture of float glass.
I’ve never come across a use for hydrogen, where the gas is used for its physical properties and not burned for heat.
How many other applications like this, will the ready availability of hydrogen open up?
I wonder, if the next step will be to use hydrogen to heat the tin and create the actual glass, so that Guardian Glass will be able to make zero-carbon glass.
As the temperatures required are over a 1000 °C, this process could use a lot of hydrogen.
As Guardian Glass are based at Goole, I suspect that they’ll be able to get a hydrogen pipeline from the electrolyser, that SSE are building on Humberside.
The Anonymous Widower 