T5-B: Overcoming the Challenges of Offshore Wind Energy Through Research and Education
Location
Bill France B
Start Date
6-3-2018 10:20 AM
Description
Wind energy installations in the United States have grown from 1,800 MW in 1990 to over 35,000MW by the end of 2009. Furthermore, a number of innovative offshore wind designs will be constructed in the near future. This growth is guided by a need for further technological development and research in critical areas such as grid penetration, reliability, cost, and performance. Since offshore wind turbines operate under harsh environmental conditions, research is ongoing to develop new materials capable of abating wear, corrosion, bio-fouling under extreme loading conditions. Gearboxes, electrical machines and power electronics have been used in wind turbines. Due to lack of reliability in offshore turbines, interdisciplinary research involving key manufacturers of wind turbines is being conducted on failure analyses of the gear box, the generator and the electrical system. However, despite these advances, a longterm perspective to develop offshore wind energy beyond the state of the art is imperative. This is driven by knowledge gaps in areas such as materials and structures, electrical conversion, electromechanical conversion, design methods, and soil-structure interaction. Moreover, challenging aspects of offshore wind energy such as predicting hydrodynamic effects for offshore wind turbines more efficiently is important. Thus the present study attempts to proclaim that there is a strong need for research in offshore wind energy. The project plan is to present the research challenges to be overcome for future development of offshore wind energy, discuss current research approach and propose pioneering research that if implemented would accelerate the development of offshore wind energy development. One of the key findings of this paper is that through research and development the fundamental design of wind turbine could be modified to mitigate the harsh environmental concerns of offshore wind turbines. Offshore wind power stations have to accomplish the L3 conditions: low cost, long-lasting and low service requirement. The objective of this paper is to achieve these through research and this research work should provide educational values to researchers as well.
T5-B: Overcoming the Challenges of Offshore Wind Energy Through Research and Education
Bill France B
Wind energy installations in the United States have grown from 1,800 MW in 1990 to over 35,000MW by the end of 2009. Furthermore, a number of innovative offshore wind designs will be constructed in the near future. This growth is guided by a need for further technological development and research in critical areas such as grid penetration, reliability, cost, and performance. Since offshore wind turbines operate under harsh environmental conditions, research is ongoing to develop new materials capable of abating wear, corrosion, bio-fouling under extreme loading conditions. Gearboxes, electrical machines and power electronics have been used in wind turbines. Due to lack of reliability in offshore turbines, interdisciplinary research involving key manufacturers of wind turbines is being conducted on failure analyses of the gear box, the generator and the electrical system. However, despite these advances, a longterm perspective to develop offshore wind energy beyond the state of the art is imperative. This is driven by knowledge gaps in areas such as materials and structures, electrical conversion, electromechanical conversion, design methods, and soil-structure interaction. Moreover, challenging aspects of offshore wind energy such as predicting hydrodynamic effects for offshore wind turbines more efficiently is important. Thus the present study attempts to proclaim that there is a strong need for research in offshore wind energy. The project plan is to present the research challenges to be overcome for future development of offshore wind energy, discuss current research approach and propose pioneering research that if implemented would accelerate the development of offshore wind energy development. One of the key findings of this paper is that through research and development the fundamental design of wind turbine could be modified to mitigate the harsh environmental concerns of offshore wind turbines. Offshore wind power stations have to accomplish the L3 conditions: low cost, long-lasting and low service requirement. The objective of this paper is to achieve these through research and this research work should provide educational values to researchers as well.