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

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Addressing the decommissioning issues is vital to ensure a sustainable and effective process of such an essential part of the project life cycle. While there is a set of good practices and regulations that govern most of the decommissioning activities, the cable decommissioning issue is still in a big debate and often left abandoned at the seabed due to environmental concerns, as justified by most developers. This paper is aiming to understand the environmental and economic consequences of cable decommissioning. The available research papers and reports that are dealing with cable decommissioning issues have been reviewed. The cables are often decommissioned using similar methods to installation. However, there are no regulatory obligations to removing the cables in most countries. Cable installation will be associated with environmental impacts, but they are considered to be negligible. Additionally, Recycling cables’ copper is beneficial in both aspects environmentally and economically as copper prices are on the rise. A comparison between the ESs and decommissioning programs in a number of OWFSs have been conducted to understand the justification used for abandoning the cables. Most of the decommissioning reports have considered cable decommissioning to cause “considerable damage to seabed ecology”. However, that contradicts what was found in the ESs, where the impact level was considered negligible and anticipated to be similar to installation. It was unclear whether the abandonment of cables was driven by environmental considerations or not. A case study has been selected to compare cable and monopile decommissioning costs and the contribution of each component to the total decommissioning cost, including possible revenue generated from recycling. It was found that the cost-benefit of cable decommissioning is incomparable to monopile decommissioning as the latter is very costly, and the possible residual value is insignificant when compared to cables. Moreover, it is possible that the total cable decommissioning cost to be largely offset by the revenue generated from copper resell. Additionally, the cable decommissioning total cost can be almost paid by recycling cables if copper prices increase in the near future.

Year 2040 the goal is to have a 100 % renewable Swedish energy system. Svenska kraftnät (Svk) predicts fully decommissioned nuclear power plants and an increased amount of connected wind power plants, especially offshore, year 2045. These kind of renewable power plants are non-synchronous and do not provide the grid with the same system stability services naturally as synchronous generators, such as nuclear power plants. With the increased number of renewables connected, one future challenge is to maintain the stability of the power grid. Grid stability can be divided into voltage-, frequency- and rotor angle stability.This thesis has investigated how large-scale offshore wind power plants (OWPPs) can contribute with reactive power compensation and in turn voltage stability to a nearby onshore power grid in Sweden. The evaluation has been done from the perspective of the TSO and the OWPP owner interests, with a focus on grid codes, economic incentives and technical capabilities.This project has been made in three parts. First, a comparison of voltage stability control requirements in different European grid codes was made. Secondly, static power flow simulations of a case study of a 1000 MW OWPP have been performed in PowerWorld Simulator, testing the OWPP’s reactive power outputs under different circumstances. Thirdly, a market opportunity analysis has been completed, analyzing reactive power market opportunities for OWPPs as well as for TSOs.The study shows that the reactive power capabilities of the simulated OWPP is considerable higher than the Swedish grid codes requires. Thus, an opportunity is to make the grid codes stricter, in combination with economic incentives. The case study showed that the distance offshore has an impact of the reactive power reaching the grid onshore. Though, the OWPP’s contribution to local voltage stability onshore is considered as good. Finally, with short- and long-term contracts, a reactive power market can be favorable for both the OWPP owner and the TSO.

The aim with this study is to analyze and try to understand the arguments and conflicts associated with the planning and development of offshore wind power in Sweden, and to study various media articles and their significance for offshore wind power in Sweden. A qualitative method has been applied in the form of a media analysis. The material for the study is based on diverse types of articles from the media in the form of news articles, commentaries, and debate articles. The articles I have chosen to analyze come mostly from the most popular news editors in Sweden; "Aftonbladet", "Dagens Nyheter" and "Svenska Dagbladet". There are also news articles from local newspapers so that even smaller local events can be captured and studied. Further in this study, media such as Swedish Radio and SVT Nyheter have been applied where shorter news items can be examined. This result shows how the opposition and arguments for and against offshore wind power are played out in the media and that the media can function as an information provider for offshore wind power linked to the planning and expansion of offshore wind power in Sweden. Many opinions want to highlight the negative consequences of offshore wind power, mainly from a local point of view. In some cases, opposition is also about preserving nature's values and not making interventions in nature that affect biodiversity, but this is something that "NIMBY" may have led to. That media coverage of the topic is largely based on informing people about ongoing projects and preparing press releases with important information about the projects, as well as acting as an information channel.

In this thesis the Counter Rotating vertical Axis Floating Tilting wind turbine (CRAFT) has been explored by creating a simulation model in the program Simulink. The CRAFT prototype is a new type of wind turbine under development by World Wide Wind and Uppsala University with the aim to produce a large scale floating vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) with two cone shaped counter rotating turbines. The objective of this thesis is to study the required size of the secondary generator in the CRAFT. The generator is required in order to keep both of the turbines rotating with the same but opposite rotational speed, even when the turbines are experiencing different wind loads. Further areas that are investigated are if certain parameters have a specifically high impact on the need for the secondary generator.  The objective was reached by creating a model of the prototype and implementing control algorithms for both the secondary and main generator in order to control the rotational speed of the turbines. The behaviour of the CRAFT was then simulated with different wind loads and varying parameters such as the size of the main load, the size of the power output to the secondary generator and the wing length of the lower turbine. The simulations showed that it is possible to keep the rotational speed of the two turbines equal and opposite even during turbulent wind loads with the chosen control algorithm. The simulation also showed that if a small deviation in the turbine's rotational speed is allowed, a secondary generator of only 1 kW is needed instead of the currently used 5 kW generator. It was also shown that the elongating of the lower turbine wings had a small and positive effect on the energy output of the CRAFT.

Wind power is a renewable energy source that is making great strides in the global energy sector. While wind power is a renewable energy source, it is not entirely free from carbon emissions. This is because the production of wind turbines is dependent on the use of energy, and as a result can emit large amounts of carbon dioxide. This is because the production of wind turbines is dependent on the use of energy and as a result can emit large amounts of carbon dioxide. The emissions come from two sources, the materials used in the wind turbine and the energy used in the manufacturing process. Because wind turbine production is global, the geographical location also affects the climate impact. The purpose of this study is therefore to evaluate the climate impact from material and energy use for the different turbine components. Furthermore, it aims to evaluate the total climate impact between on-and offshore wind power as well as evaluate the climate impact between production in Sweden, Germany and China. The climate impact is based on 13 Vestas LCA reports, together with a model developed in excel. The results show that the location of production plays a significant role in the total emissions, due to the large variation in the electricity mix between different countries. Generally, the steel components are the largest contributors to the total CO2 emissions. Consequently, offshore wind has a higher climate impact than its onshore counterpart because the offshore foundation is made of steel. The result is, however, limited due to the lack of standardisation and since specific information regarding wind power is hard to acquire. / Vindkraft är en förnyelsebar energikälla, som gör stora framsteg inom den globala energisektorn. Samtidigt som vindkraften är förnyelsebar, är den inte helt fri från koldioxidutsläpp. Detta beror på att produktionen av vindkraftverk kräver energi och kan därför släppa ut stora mängder koldioxid. Utsläppen kommer från två källor, de material som används i vindkraftverket och energin som behövs vid tillverkningen. Eftersom produktion av vindkraftverk sker på ett globalt plan, har även den geografiska platsen där tillverkningen sker en påverkan på klimatpåverkan. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka klimatpåverkan från material och energianvändningen fördelat över vindkraftverks huvudkomponenter. Utöver detta, syftar den även till att undersöka den totala klimatpåverkan mellan land- och havsbaserad vindkraft samt hur klimatpåverkan skiljer sig åt mellan produktion i Sverige, Tyskland och Kina. Studien utgår från 13 Vestas LCA rapporter och använde en excelmodell för att utvärdera utsläppen av koldioxid. Resultatet visar att den geografiska platsen där produktionen sker har stor betydelse för de totala utsläppen, eftersom det är stor variation i energimix mellan olika länder. Överlag är det de stora stålkomponenterna som har störst bidrag till klimatpåverkan. Till följd av detta har havsbaserad vindkraft större klimatpåverkan än landbaserad, eftersom fundamentet primärt består av stål. Resultatet är dock begränsat, på grund av bristen av standardisering i rapportering och eftersom det är svårt att tillhandahålla specifika data gällande vindkraft.

Rådande situation med klimatförändringar och oroligheter i Europa kräver åtgärder för att kunna skifta från fossila bränslen och energikällor till mer hållbara alternativ. Elförbrukningen väntas öka signifikant i Sverige och ett alternativ för att tillgodose hållbar energi och klimatmål är utvecklingen av vindkraft. Satsningar sker alltmer på havsbaserad vindkraft eftersom det är goda vindförhållanden och mindre påverkan för människor i närområdet eftersom vindkraftverken kan placeras långt från kusten. I många fall är det projekteringsföretag, kommuner och politiker som beslutar placeringen av vindkraftverken. Ett problem som uppstår är när allmänheten anser att det uppstår störningar på grund av att vindkraftverken placeras i dess närhet och att de inte får deltaga i planeringsprocessen. Studien syftar till att hitta lämpliga platser för havsbaserad vindkraft utifrån metoderna medborgardialog och multikriterie-analys för att kunna integrera medborgarinflytande i planeringsprocessen. ”Mjuka kriterier” som ofta tas upp i sammanhang om vindkraft har tagits i beaktning och har skickats ut i en enkätundersökning för att få in vad som är viktigast för invånare i Gävle kommun. Dessa innefattar hur stor påverkan respondenterna uppfattas kunna påverkas av som till exempel ljud, utsikt och buller. Utifrån dessa kriterier fick respondenterna rangordna samtliga för att skapa en viktning till multikriterie-analysen. Beskrivande statistik på vad respondenterna är oroliga för att påverkas av vid byggnation av havsbaserad vindkraft togs fram för att styrka studiens legitimitet. Resultatet visar att det är en stor majoritet av respondenter som är positivt inställd mot vindkraft och att respondenter inte uttrycker någon signifikant oro. Metoden MKA med viktning av rank sum weights användes för att skapa olika kartor faktor- och restriktionskartor baserat på respondenternas svar samt en teknisk analys utifrån en omfattande litteraturstudie. Den tekniska analysen använder kriterier som havsdjup, avstånd till kraftstationer och hamnar som inte klassas som ”mjuka kriterier”. Resultatet visar att medborgardialogen påverkar vilken lokalisering vindkraftverken får jämfört med den tekniska analysen. En slutgiltig karta skapades för att visa var någonstans vindkraftparken kan hamna om båda delarna tillgodoses. Studien tyder på att ett större underlag för medborgardialog kunnat ge ett tydligare resultat samt att viss typ av data hade krävts för en ordentlig teknisk analys. Det nya som denna studie har utvecklat är en metod för att föra en medborgardialog gällande havsbaserad vindkraft och kvantifierat invånarnas åsikter till geografiska data. / The current situation with climate change and unrest in Europe requires measures to be able to switch from fossil fuels and energy sources to more sustainable alternatives. Electricity consumption is expected to increase significantly in Sweden and an alternative for meeting sustainable energy and climate goals is the development of wind power. Investments are increasingly being made in offshore wind power because it has adequate wind conditions and less impact for people in the immediate area since the turbines can be located far from the shore. In many cases, it is corporations, municipalities and politicians who decide on the location of the wind turbines. A problem that arises is when the public considers that disturbances occur due to the fact that the wind turbines are located in their vicinity and that they are not offered the possibility to participate in the planning process. The study aims to find suitable places for offshore wind power based on the methods citizen dialogue and multi-criteria analysis to be able to integrate citizen influence in the planning process. "Soft criteria" that are often raised in the context of wind power was taken into account and was included in a survey to address what is important for residents of Gävle municipality. These include how much impact the respondent is perceived to be affected by, such as sound, view and noise. Based on these criteria, the respondents were allowed to rank all of them in order to create a weighting for the multi-criteria analysis. Descriptive statistics based on what the respondents are worried about being affected by during the construction of offshore wind power were produced to prove the legitimacy of the study. The results show that a large majority of respondents are positive towards wind power and that respondents do not express any significant concern regarding the construction of offshore wind power. The MCA method with weighting method rank sum weights was used to create different factor and constraint maps based on the survey answers and a technical analysis based on an extensive literature study. The technical analysis uses criteria such as bathymetry, distance to power stations and ports that are not classified as "soft criteria". The results show that the citizen dialogue affects the location of the wind turbines compared to the technical analysis. A final map was created to show where the wind farm could end up if both parts are met. The study indicates that a more comprehensive citizen dialogue could have given a more concise result and that a certain type of data had been required for a more thorough technical analysis. The new thing that this study has developed is a method for conducting a citizen dialogue regarding offshore wind power and quantifying the inhabitants' opinions to geographical data.

The aim of this Thesis is to consider a methodological framework suitable to support a primary and primitive investigation and evaluation of the technical applicability and energy feasibility of a specific Energy Island model in Greece. For such purpose, the general concept and the potential applications of Energy Island are presented, and the present situation of the Greek energy sector and RES technologies in Greece are outlined. In order to attempt to evaluate the technical performance of a specific Energy Island model in Greece, a theoretical and hypothetical Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) process is developed and conducted. The methodological framework developed and applied for the present case study pertains to a theoretical decision-making process for the selection of the optimum Energy Island scenario in Greece amongst four (4) alternatives. As derived from the extracted results of the applied MCDA model, the hypothetical scenario with the highest annual energy production and the least environmental and technological issues ranks optimal for all the implicated stakeholders and is considered the most preferred alternative. This Thesis concludes that the perspective of the various applications of the concept of the Energy Island model has the potential to contribute to more efficient utilization of the available RES technologies in Greece, in order to accelerate the decarbonization of the Greek energy system as well as to assure the security of the system, by replacing the existing conventional fossil fuel generation plants with clean offshore renewable energy.

Despite currently having only one operational offshore wind farm, Italy holds a significant potential for the future development of this technology. The Global Wind Council placed Italy second in its ranking of the world’s 30 most attractive markets regarding the potential of future offshore development, attracting the attention of numerous developers. The characteristics of the Mediterranean Sea, with its high water depth, make it possible to develop mainly floating technology. Furthermore, the absence of severe weather events, present in the Atlantic and the North Sea instead, enhanced security and contributed to the reduction of investment risks. Currently, there are many new wind farms awaiting approval, as evidenced by Terna, the Italian Transmission System Operator (TSO), which announced that by the end of October 2022 the connection requests for offshore wind projects had reached 95 GW. This thesis aims to develop an approach able to compare several projects from multiple perspectives. Specifically, the thesis applies the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to evaluate and compare four floating offshore wind farms which are now in the permitting phase. The projects are located off the coast of Sardinia, one of the most promising locations in the Mediterranean Sea for offshore wind installation. The evaluation of the future wind farms is conducted using eleven criteria, each assigned a different weight based on the preferences of six stakeholder groups. The tool used to rank the criteria is the PROMETHEE tool. The results demonstrate that each stakeholder group ranks the projects differently based on their respective preferences. Finally, an overall ranking of the wind farms is derived, identifying the most and least favorable projects.