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Offshore Wind Energy

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Springer Handbook of Ocean Engineering

Part of the book series: Springer Handbooks ((SHB))

Abstract

In 1991, the Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm, the first offshore wind farm in the world, started feeding electricity to the grid off the coast of Lolland, Denmark. Since then, offshore wind energy has developed from this early experiment to a multibillion dollar market and an important pillar of worldwide renewable energy production. Unit sizes grew from 450 kW at Vindeby to the 7.5 MW-class offshore wind turbines (GlossaryTerm

OWT

) that are currently (by October 2014) in the prototyping phase.

This chapter gives an overview of the state of the art in offshore wind turbine (GlossaryTerm

OWT

) technology and introduces the principles of modeling and simulating an GlossaryTerm

OWT

. The GlossaryTerm

OWT

components – including the rotor, nacelle, support structure, control system, and power electronics – are introduced, and current technological challenges are presented. The GlossaryTerm

OWT

system dynamics and the environment (wind and ocean waves) are described from the perspective of GlossaryTerm

OWT

modelers and designers. Finally, an outlook on future technology is provided.

The descriptions in this chapter are focused on a single GlossaryTerm

OWT

 – more precisely, a horizontal-axis wind turbine – as a dynamic system. Offshore wind farms and wind farm effects are not described in detail in this chapter, but an introduction and further references are given.

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Abbreviations

3-D:

three-dimensional

DFIG:

doubly-fed generator

DOF:

degree of freedom

EESG:

electrically-excited-synchronous generator

FEM:

finite element method

GBS:

gravity-based substructure

GDW:

generalized dynamic wake

HAWT:

horizontal-axis wind turbine

IGBT:

insulated-gate bipolar transistor

IG:

induction generator

MBS:

multibody simulation

OWT:

offshore wind turbine

PMSG:

permanent-magnet-excited-synchronous generator

RNA:

rotor-nacelle assembly

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology IWES, Am Seedeich 45, 27572, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Mareike Strach-Sonsalla

  2. Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology IWES, Appelstraße 9A, 30167, Hannover, Germany

    Matthias Stammler

  3. Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology IWES, Am Seedeich 45, 27572, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Jan Wenske

  4. National Wind Technology Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, CO 80401, Golden, Colorado, USA

    Jason Jonkman

  5. Leading Expert Offshore Engineering Tower & Substructure Senvion GmbH, Franz-Lenz-Straße 1, 49084, Osnabrück, Germany

    Fabian Vorpahl

Authors
  1. Mareike Strach-Sonsalla
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  2. Matthias Stammler
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  3. Jan Wenske
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  4. Jason Jonkman
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  5. Fabian Vorpahl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mareike Strach-Sonsalla .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Inst. for Ocean and Systems Engineering – SeaTech, Florida Atlantic University, 101 North Beach Road, FL 33004, Dania Beach, Florida, USA

    Manhar R. Dhanak

  2. School of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering, University of New Orleans, 2000 Lakeshore Drive, LA 70148, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

    Nikolaos I. Xiros

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Strach-Sonsalla, M., Stammler, M., Wenske, J., Jonkman, J., Vorpahl, F. (2016). Offshore Wind Energy. In: Dhanak, M.R., Xiros, N.I. (eds) Springer Handbook of Ocean Engineering. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16649-0_49

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16649-0_49

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16648-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16649-0

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