With shipping routes, fisheries, conservation areas, recreation, and other maritime industries competing for space off Virginia's coastline, integrated solutions for marine areas may offer a way to limit conflict and maximize productivity. Countries across the world are researching the different ways in which the space between turbines can be utilized to provide economic and environmental benefits. The act of coupling other maritime activities with offshore wind farms is often referred to as co-location. As Virginia constructs the first offshore wind farm in United States Federal waters, there are new opportunities for co-location that could benefit the Virginia economy. Using data from a choice experiment and random utility modeling, this research quantifies Virginia public preferences for various co-location options within the lease area of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) farm. Our estimated WTP values show Virginia's public preference for the addition of co-location to the CVOW lease area to be upwards of $20 per 1,000 acres of activity. Our estimates can be compared to implementation and management costs of each activity to determine potential for incorporation of certain co-location techniques. The experimental design of this study can be applied to other offshore wind installments around the world. / Master of Science / With shipping routes, fisheries, conservation areas, recreation, and other maritime industries competing for space off Virginia's coastline, integrated solutions for marine areas may offer a way to limit conflict and maximize productivity. Countries across the world are researching the different ways in which the space between turbines can be utilized to provide economic and environmental benefits. The act of coupling other maritime activities with offshore wind farms is often referred to as co-location. As Virginia constructs the first offshore wind farm in United States federal waters, there are new opportunities for co-location that could benefit the Virginia economy. Using a Stated Preference Choice Experiment and economic valuation methods, this research quantifies Virginia's public preferences for various co-location options within the lease area of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) farm, such as: a seaweed aquaculture farm, a seaweed forest, and a research area. Our estimated WTP values show Virginia's public preference for the addition of co-location to the CVOW lease area to be upwards of $20 per 1,000 acres of activity. Our estimates can be compared to implementation and management costs of each activity to determine potential for incorporation of certain co-location techniques. The experimental design of this study can be applied to other offshore wind installments around the world.

The electrification of societies and the decarbonisation of electricity production are changing energy systems worldwide. A fast transition towards the replacement of fossil fuels by intermittent renewable energy sources is expected in the next decades to combat climate change. A significant share of the produced electricity is likely to be generated from offshore wind farms, due to the abundant wind resources in the offshore regions and the lack of available onshore sites. However, increased electricity dependence in combination with expanded offshore wind power generation introduce new vulnerabilities to the society. Specifically, the effects of high impact low probability (HILP) events are considered as potential threats to the power system, not least because of the increasing number of extreme weather events. Therefore, research on power grid vulnerability and power system resilience to HILP events are of significant interest. This thesis presents results of studies investigating power grid vulnerability from a topological perspective, and resilience to storm conditions of power systems with varying dependencies on offshore wind. To achieve this, methods based on complex network theory and AC power flow analysis have been developed, tested, and evaluated. Further, geospatial wind data from historical extreme storm events have been used to generate realistic power production profiles from hypothetical offshore wind farms. The results strengthen that complex network concepts can be used successfully in the context of power grid vulnerability analysis. Further, the results show that the resilience of power systems with large dependencies on offshore wind differ vastly depending on the grid properties and control strategies, which are further discussed in this thesis.

Offshore wind farm (OWF) construction in the UK is progressing rapidly alongside increasing spatial pressures on marine ecosystems and social and economic activities. A need for increased protection of habitats, species and ecological processes that support environmental and economic benefits is being met by designation of marine protected areas (MPAs). Mitigation and spatial planning solutions are required to enable protection of vital ecological habitats, features and processes and support sustainable economic development. A potential solution is to co-locate OWFs and MPAs. This study uses a multi-disciplinary approach to examine if evidence on the environmental effects of existing OWFs and associated effects on fishing activity (as an existing resource use) benefits MPA goals. Through a systematic review and meta-analyses of existing data, knowledge of OWF effects on species abundance and economic effects on fishing were identified as key evidence gaps. The ecological evidence need was approached through a case study of ecological effects of North Hoyle OWF, North Wales, UK, using existing pre and post-construction monitoring data, as well as primary baited remote underwater video data, collected 5 years later (8 years post-construction). Results suggested habitat and species recovered to a stable state that showed some community differences to pre-construction conditions. The presence of OWF monopiles is likely to have increased existing heterogeneity of substratum and increased opportunities for scavenging species. Species benefitting and disadvantaged by habitat provided within the OWF reflected meta-analyses trends. Extended baseline monitoring to provide confident identification of natural levels of variation in sediment and fauna was lacking. Analysis of fishing activity and landings before and after OWF construction in three UK case study regions approached effects on resource users. Fishing activity in the three case study areas showed broad scale similarity to national trends. Small-scale activity patterns indicated greater reductions in mobile (towed) fishing gear effort near to operating OWFs than in static gear activity (using pots or static nets). Semi-structured interviews conducted with fishermen in each region revealed loss of ground and disruption as negative effects from OWFs, in addition to existing pressures. Benefits including habitat creation and species augmentation, as well as reduction of cumulative lost ground, were identified by fishermen from co-location of MPAs and OWFs. Ecological effects of OWFs suggested benefits from habitat creation, species augmentation and potential for protection of sandbank habitats between monopiles. Mitigation requirements were identified to maximise these potential benefits to an MPA network.

This paper sets out to analyze the observed wake effect at Block Island Wind Farm. A comparison is made between several wake simulation methods and the observed data at Block Island using analytic and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) modelling methods.  The observed wake results at Block Island show a similar trend evident in earlier papers- a large power deficit found between the first two Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs) in the row followed by a slight variation in power along the row for the remainder of the WTGs. A noticeable difference is seen between the last two WTGs in the row where an increase in power is found. This increase in power is thought to be due to the alignment of the wind farm. Nevertheless, when the observed data is compared with the modeled results, the observed data seem to underestimate the wake effect due to misalignment issue with the nacelle wind direction measurement. A sensitivity analysis is conducted on the Wake Decay Constant (WDC) and Turbulence Intensity (TI) values. The results show a maximum power variation of ≈30% between a WDC value of 0.07 and 0.04 and ≈18% for TI values between 8% and 14%. The findings show that a value in the higher range of the examined WDC (0.06 and 0.07) and TI (12% and 14%) values represent a better comparison to the observed data. Nevertheless, it is not recommended to alter these parameters to fit the observed data. Furthermore, due to high uncertainty in the data measurements, and hence observed results, a clear conclusion indicating which wake model best represents the wake effect at Block Island cannot be stated.

In order to meet EU legislation on emissions, significant effort is being invested into the development of cost-effective renewable power generation technologies. The two leading technologies are solar and wind power because of their potential for the lowest levelised cost of energy and for showing a growth in installed capacity and technological development. Various research findings have suggested that significant cost savings in the capital expenditure of renewable energy projects can be made through the optimisation of their support foundations, the understanding of which has formed the main goal of the research.

No description available.

Ce mémoire de thèse constitue une contribution à l'investigation des génératrices destinées à une application éolienne en mer. Le but est de rechercher les solutions optimales dans un domaine de recherche vaste contenant entre huit et onze variables d'optimisation, tout en respectant un cahier de charge bien précis. Afin d'y parvenir, un modèle multi-physique a été développé permettant la détermination des distributions du champ électromagnétique et de température dans les topologies de génératrices choisies avec prise en considération des non-linéarités des matériaux. La méthode des constantes localisées couplée aux fonctions d'interpolations a été choisie comme solution offrant un bon rapport temps de calculs/précision, prenant ainsi en considération les caractéristiques des matériaux (thermiques et magnétiques). Le modèle développé a été couplé à un algorithme d'optimisation génétique, NSGAII, permettant dans un premier temps ; d'investiguer le poids nécessaire des aimants permanents et des parties actives de deux topologies de génératrices synchrones à aimant permanent où dans la première les aimants sont montés en surfaces et dans la seconde insérés en concentration de flux, trois puissances différentes ont été investiguées 5, 8 et 15 [MW]. Dans un second temps, l'intégration d'un multiplicateur de vitesse magnétique dans la chaîne de conversion éolienne a été étudiée à travers la même approche optimale utilisée précédemment tout en comparant le poids nécessaires des aimants permanents pour ce type d'entrainement avec celle des topologies à attaque directe (sans multiplicateur de vitesse). / The aim of this PhD report is the investigation of electrical generators dedicated to an offshore wind turbine application. The main goal is to find optimal solutions in a vast research domain containing between eight and eleven optimization variables, while respecting a the imposed constraints. In order to achieve this goal, a multi-physics model was developed allowing the determination of the electromagnetic and temperature fields distributions in the selected topologies. Lumped models coupled to the interpolation functions were chosen as a solution offering a good computation time / precision ratio, thus taking into consideration the characteristics of the materials (thermal and magnetic). The developed model was coupled to a genetic optimization algorithm, NSGAII, allowing at first; the investigation of the necessary permanent magnets weight and the active parts one of two permanent magnet synchronous generator topologies where in the first the magnets are mounted in surfaces and in the second inserted in order to have flux concentration, three different powers have been investigated 5, 8 and 15 [MW]. Second, the integration of a magnetic gear in the wind energy conversion chain was studied using the same optimal approach previously used, while comparing the weight required of permanent magnets for this type of training with that of direct drive topologies (without gearbox).

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T13:53:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LanaVLCS_DISSERT.pdf: 716391 bytes, checksum: b33e1111ab67ab2b0d5834afe0fe5855 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-27 / Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte / The consumption of energy on the planet is currently based on fossil fuels. They are responsible for adverse effects on the environment. Renewables propose solutions for this scenario, but must face issues related to the capacity of the power supply. Wind energy offshore emerging as a promising alternative. The speed and stability are greater winds over oceans, but the variability of these may cause inconvenience to the generation of electric power fluctuations. To reduce this, a combination of wind farms geographically distributed was proposed. The greater the distance between them, the lower the correlation between the wind velocity, increasing the likelihood that together achieve more stable power system with less fluctuations in power generation. The efficient use of production capacity of the wind park however, depends on their distribution in marine environments. The objective of this research was to analyze the optimal allocation of wind farms offshore on the east coast of the U.S. by Modern Portfolio Theory. The Modern Portfolio Theory was used so that the process of building portfolios of wind energy offshore contemplate the particularity of intermittency of wind, through calculations of return and risk of the production of wind farms. The research was conducted with 25.934 observations of energy produced by wind farms 11 hypothetical offshore, from the installation of 01 simulated ocean turbine with a capacity of 5 MW. The data show hourly time resolution and covers the period between January 1, 1998 until December 31, 2002. Through the Matlab R software, six were calculated minimum variance portfolios, each for a period of time distinct. Given the inequality of the variability of wind over time, set up four strategies rebalancing to evaluate the performance of the related portfolios, which enabled us to identify the most beneficial to the stability of the wind energy production offshore. The results showed that the production of wind energy for 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 should be considered by the portfolio weights calculated for the same periods, respectively. Energy data for 2002 should use the weights derived from the portfolio calculated in the previous time period. Finally, the production of wind energy in the period 1998-2002 should also be weighted by 1/11. It follows therefore that the portfolios found failed to show reduced levels of variability when compared to the individual production of wind farms hypothetical offshore / O consumo de energia no planeta ? atualmente baseado no uso de combust?veis f?sseis. Eles s?o respons?veis por efeitos negativos sobre o meio-ambiente. As energias renov?veis prop?em solu??es para esse cen?rio, mas devem encarar quest?es relacionadas ? capacidade de fornecimento de energia. A energia e?lica offshore desponta como uma alternativa promissora. A velocidade e estabilidade dos ventos s?o maiores sobre oceanos, mas a variabilidade dos mesmos pode provocar flutua??es inconvenientes ? gera??o de energia el?trica. Para diminuir isso, uma combina??o de parques e?licos distribu?dos geograficamente foi proposta. Quanto maior a dist?ncia entre eles, menor a correla??o entre a velocidade dos ventos, aumentando a probabilidade de que produzam conjuntamente um sistema de energia mais est?vel, com menos flutua??es da produ??o de energia. O uso eficiente da capacidade de produ??o dos parques e?licos, entretanto, depende da distribui??o deles em ambientes mar?timos. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar a aloca??o ?tima de parques e?licos offshore na costa leste dos EUA, atrav?s da Moderna Teoria de Carteiras. A Moderna Teoria de Carteiras foi empregada de modo que o processo de constru??o das carteiras de energia e?lica offshore contemplasse a particularidade da intermit?ncia dos ventos, atrav?s dos c?lculos de retorno e risco da produ??o dos parques e?licos. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida com 25.934 observa??es de energia, produzidas por 11 parques e?licos offshore hipot?ticos, a partir da instala??o simulada de 01 turbina oce?nica com capacidade m?xima de 5 MW. Os dados apresentam resolu??o de tempo hor?ria e cobrem o per?odo entre 01 de janeiro de 1998 at? 31 de dezembro de 2002. Por meio do software Matlab R , foram calculadas seis carteiras de m?nima vari?ncia, cada qual para um per?odo de tempo distinto. Diante da desigualdade da variabilidade dos ventos no tempo, estabeleceu-se quatro estrat?gias de rebalanceamento para avaliar o desempenho das carteiras calculadas, o que possibilitou identificar a mais ben?fica ? estabilidade da produ??o de energia e?lica offshore. Os resultados apontaram que a produ??o de energia e?lica dos anos de 1998, 1999, 2000 e 2001 deve ser ponderada pelos pesos das carteiras calculadas nos mesmos per?odos, respectivamente. Os dados de energia de 2002 devem utilizar os pesos oriundos da carteira calculada no per?odo de tempo anterior. Por fim, a produ??o de energia e?lica do per?odo entre 1998-2002 deve ser igualmente ponderada por 1/11. Conclui-se assim que as carteiras encontradas conseguiram demonstrar n?veis de variabilidade reduzidos quando comparados aos da produ??o individual dos parques e?licos offshore hipot?ticos

Wind power, especially offshore, is considered to be one of the most promising sources of ‘clean’ energy towards meeting the EU targets for 2020 and 2050. However, its popularity has always fluctuated with the price of fossil fuels since nowadays wind electricity production cannot compete with nuclear or coal electricity production. Support structures are thought to be one of the main drivers for reducing costs in order to make the wind industry more economically efficient. Foundations and towers should be fit for purpose, extending their effective service life but avoiding costs of oversizing. An exhaustive review of the background and state of the art of the Fatigue-Life assessment approaches has been carried out, combining analysis of the gathered experimental data and the development of Finite Element models based on contemporary 3D solid models with diverse Regression Analyses, in order to identify their weakness and evaluate their accuracy. This research shows that the guides and practices currently employed in the design and during the operation of the offshore wind turbine support structures are obsolete and not useful for optimisation, which generally leads to conservationism and an unnecessary increase in costs. The basis for a comprehensive update of the Girth Weld and Tubular Joint S-N curves and the Stress Concentration Factors of Tubular Joints has been set out. Furthermore, a reliable methodology for deriving the Stress Intensity Factor at the deepest point of a semi-elliptical surface saddle crack in a tubular welded T-joint has been proposed.

Scour is a process of removing soils around foundations by currents and waves. For the pile-supported marine structures such as the monopile-supported offshore wind turbines (OWTs) and the pile-supported bridges, scour can decrease the pile capacities and alter the dynamic responses of the structures. At present, there is not a widely accepted method to estimate pile axial or lateral capacity under scoured conditions. For example, different recommendations are used among the existing design standards for estimation of the vertical effective stress and the resulting capacities for single piles under different scour conditions. None of the existing standards or design practice has even considered the scour effects on the behavior of pile groups. Furthermore, the investigation into the responses of piles under multiple hazards of scour and earthquakes is rarely reported. To address the foregoing limitations, this study first introduces an analytical solution to determining the vertical effective stress of soils around single isolated piles under scoured conditions and uses it to examine the limitations of the existing standards in estimation of pile tensile capacity (Chapter 1). The effect of soil-pile interface friction is highlighted. Next, the study proposes new approaches to investigating the combined effects of scour and earthquakes on the lateral responses of the monopile-supported OWTs in sand (Chapter 2) and soft clay (Chapter 3). Lastly, simple and practical methods are developed based on the p-y curve framework for analyzing the lateral responses of pile groups in sand (Chapter 4) and soft clay (Chapter 5) subjected to static lateral loading. The proposed methods in this study were encoded into a series of open-source computer scripts for engineering practice. They were verified with the 3D continuum finite element (FE) analyses. Using the proposed methods, standard methods, and 3D FE method, parametric analyses were conducted to investigate the scour effects on the lateral behavior of the monopile-supported OWTs under crustal earthquakes and that of the pile groups under static loading. The factors considered in the parametric study included effects of scour-hole dimensions, soil stress history, soil density, soil-pile interface behavior, soil liquefaction potential, pile group configurations, etc. Through the parametric analyses, the standard methods were critically assessed by comparing the results to those calculated by the proposed methods and 3D FE methods, and some design-related issues were also discussed. / Graduate