Using the climate to protect it - windmills
If you have ever used a kite you will know that wind bears an astonishing power and windmills are a great deal to use this power for our purposes. But as well as with every other source of energy there are some problems with them. At first there are still many people thinking that one should abandon them because they destroy the view on the relatively beautiful landscapes they live in. In addition to that they really depend on the strength of the wind, because if the wind does not blow firm enough they do not move and if it is too strong they can not be operated due to the fact that the mast could not manage the resulting forces.
However over the last decades we have found a place where the wind is constantly strong enough make the windmills generate electricity with absolutely no elderly people to become annoyed by them. Of course we are talking about offshore windparks and the basic idea of them is to install lots of windmills together a couple of miles from the coast away and than connect them to the mainland via one big under sea wire.
However over the last decades we have found a place where the wind is constantly strong enough make the windmills generate electricity with absolutely no elderly people to become annoyed by them. Of course we are talking about offshore windparks and the basic idea of them is to install lots of windmills together a couple of miles from the coast away and than connect them to the mainland via one big under sea wire.
The Galloper Project - a horse that is ahead of it's time ?!
On May 24th, 2013 Great Britain's Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change granted permission for the so called 'Galloper' project, a windfarm that is located roughly 27 kilometres away from the Suffolk coast. It is planed to be an extension for a project that is already under construction, called the Greater Gabbard Offshore Windfarm. Like its predecessor Galloper will be a windfarm containing 140 windmills all in all capable of generating 504 Megawatts of elctricity which is enough to supply half a million households.
When the Greater Gabbard Windfarm was finished in September 2012 it was the largest and most powerful Offshore Windpark on our world and when in 2014 the construction of Galloper will begin, they would double the power once again, meaning that the resulting 1004 Megawatts would be enough electricity to supply one million of Britain's households with renewable energy from the North See.
Of course there is a bit more to an offshore windfarm than just plain power figures. It is a complex system working with stations used to gather the generated electricity in order to transport it to the main land. In addition to that you will also need to find the most efficient location for the windpark.
In order to do so RWE and SSE which are the two companies that finance and run the windpark had to undergo various steps during the planing of Galloper Windfarm.
Since all offshore windparks with an overall output of more than 100 Megawatts are considered so called 'Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects', which basically means that they need to undergo a series of inspections by the government in order to be granted permission for the construction. First they needed to establish an application and submit it to the responsible authority, which is meant to examine: "whether the public consultation had been adequate, whether the right environmental issues had been identified and whether the required amount and standard of information had been received". (http://www.galloperwindfarm.com/planning.php)
After that the project needed to be approved by the so called Planning Inspectorate an authority being in charge of further examining the impacts of such a big project on the region where it is going to be build. This meant, a) giving a meeting with all the people in the sphere of Galloper Windfarm that have signed in for further information and b) to inspect the impact on the environment as talking of the North sea and the coast of Suffolk.
Finally it is approaved by the british Secretary of State for Energy and Climate change, which happened successfully on May 24th 2013, as we mentioned earlier.
When the Greater Gabbard Windfarm was finished in September 2012 it was the largest and most powerful Offshore Windpark on our world and when in 2014 the construction of Galloper will begin, they would double the power once again, meaning that the resulting 1004 Megawatts would be enough electricity to supply one million of Britain's households with renewable energy from the North See.
Of course there is a bit more to an offshore windfarm than just plain power figures. It is a complex system working with stations used to gather the generated electricity in order to transport it to the main land. In addition to that you will also need to find the most efficient location for the windpark.
In order to do so RWE and SSE which are the two companies that finance and run the windpark had to undergo various steps during the planing of Galloper Windfarm.
Since all offshore windparks with an overall output of more than 100 Megawatts are considered so called 'Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects', which basically means that they need to undergo a series of inspections by the government in order to be granted permission for the construction. First they needed to establish an application and submit it to the responsible authority, which is meant to examine: "whether the public consultation had been adequate, whether the right environmental issues had been identified and whether the required amount and standard of information had been received". (http://www.galloperwindfarm.com/planning.php)
After that the project needed to be approved by the so called Planning Inspectorate an authority being in charge of further examining the impacts of such a big project on the region where it is going to be build. This meant, a) giving a meeting with all the people in the sphere of Galloper Windfarm that have signed in for further information and b) to inspect the impact on the environment as talking of the North sea and the coast of Suffolk.
Finally it is approaved by the british Secretary of State for Energy and Climate change, which happened successfully on May 24th 2013, as we mentioned earlier.
The first of 140 windmills that are installed at Greater Gappard, Gallopers's older brother
http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/1241604/rwe-innogy/news-press/media-centre/pictures/
http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/1241604/rwe-innogy/news-press/media-centre/pictures/
How to build an offshore windpark and how it works
After the permission the first thing that RWE and SSE had to do was build the foundations for 140 windmills in the North sea, which rather iscomplicated, because every single one of the windmills will be 195 metres high and therefore they require a very solid foundation. In fact the windmills stand on so called Monopiles being basically enormous pillars. They are carried to the final location of the future winmill and after than ramed more than 20 metres into the ground. And since the water is approximately 50 metres deep there they need to be more than 70 metres high.
In order to install the various parts you will need s special vessel that you can see in the picture above. These vessels carry there on retractable pillars with them two in the front and to in the back so when they are building a windmill they can ram these pillars into the ground and pull themselves out of the water in order to have maximum stability while building up the windmill.
If the vessel is at the spot and the monopile is installed a second similar vessel arrives with the mast, the turbine and the rotator blades of the windmill, which are than assemblied on the vessel and after that fited to the monopile.
Now all the windmills need to be erected with a minimum distance of 650 metres to the next windmill due to safety reasons, and as a resut from that the finished windpark is 147 square kilometres big which is essentially the size of twohundred and five football pitches. Thus you need special plattforms where the electricity is gathered and than send to the mainland. In the case of Greater Gabbard and Galloper there are four of these platforms. All in all about 172 kilometres of undersea cabels are required to connect all the windmills of one of the parks with the electricity platforms.
After it is gathered at those platforms the electricity is than sent through high voltage undersea wires in order to minimize losses on the way.
In order to install the various parts you will need s special vessel that you can see in the picture above. These vessels carry there on retractable pillars with them two in the front and to in the back so when they are building a windmill they can ram these pillars into the ground and pull themselves out of the water in order to have maximum stability while building up the windmill.
If the vessel is at the spot and the monopile is installed a second similar vessel arrives with the mast, the turbine and the rotator blades of the windmill, which are than assemblied on the vessel and after that fited to the monopile.
Now all the windmills need to be erected with a minimum distance of 650 metres to the next windmill due to safety reasons, and as a resut from that the finished windpark is 147 square kilometres big which is essentially the size of twohundred and five football pitches. Thus you need special plattforms where the electricity is gathered and than send to the mainland. In the case of Greater Gabbard and Galloper there are four of these platforms. All in all about 172 kilometres of undersea cabels are required to connect all the windmills of one of the parks with the electricity platforms.
After it is gathered at those platforms the electricity is than sent through high voltage undersea wires in order to minimize losses on the way.
Are Windparks really environmental friendly ?
This is a very good question, because it is hard to say what happens when you ram a big metal pillar into an existing eco system. And the main reason for this difficulty is the fact that we do not yet have enough longtime experience with windparks.
However what we can determin is that during the process of building a windpark many species have to leave the place in question and therefore eco-mentalists demand the end of offshore winparks. However what they do not take into account is the fact that after all the heavy machines and the noise and the dust are gone slowly but truely many species come back to the windparks."The settlement begins when the dust is coming to a stop", as Markus Lenz from the Helmholtz Centre for ocean studies Kiel in Germany says.
And the reason for that being is normaly the Northsea is a pretty flat landscape if you want to put it like that. There are hardly any natural shelfs and because when the windpark is finally at work it is a quiet and most of all peaceful place to be since fishing and shipping are not allowed.
After the first amoebas, plancton and crabs have settled even bigger fish regularily visit these windparks in order to use them as a feeding ground. "The local biodiversity increases," as marine biologist Jennifer Dannheim, from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Ocean studies, explains.
However one must not get carried away because until now we do not know whether these changes are positive or negative, because they could as well bring foreign species to the North sea which will endange the domestic species, as they could just enrichen the variety of species in our Oceans. We will need to keep examining the impacts of winparks on the eco system of our ocean on a longterm perspective in order to determin them precisely.
Until now one has to say that everything looks rather promising.
However what we can determin is that during the process of building a windpark many species have to leave the place in question and therefore eco-mentalists demand the end of offshore winparks. However what they do not take into account is the fact that after all the heavy machines and the noise and the dust are gone slowly but truely many species come back to the windparks."The settlement begins when the dust is coming to a stop", as Markus Lenz from the Helmholtz Centre for ocean studies Kiel in Germany says.
And the reason for that being is normaly the Northsea is a pretty flat landscape if you want to put it like that. There are hardly any natural shelfs and because when the windpark is finally at work it is a quiet and most of all peaceful place to be since fishing and shipping are not allowed.
After the first amoebas, plancton and crabs have settled even bigger fish regularily visit these windparks in order to use them as a feeding ground. "The local biodiversity increases," as marine biologist Jennifer Dannheim, from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Ocean studies, explains.
However one must not get carried away because until now we do not know whether these changes are positive or negative, because they could as well bring foreign species to the North sea which will endange the domestic species, as they could just enrichen the variety of species in our Oceans. We will need to keep examining the impacts of winparks on the eco system of our ocean on a longterm perspective in order to determin them precisely.
Until now one has to say that everything looks rather promising.
Sources:
1.http://www.galloperwindfarm.com/index.php
2,http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/310134/rwe-innogy/sites/wind-offshore/under-construction/the-proposal/
3.http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/1236288/rwe-innoldgy/sites/wind-offshore/developing-sites/galloper/
4.http://www.zeit.de/wissen/umwelt/2013-03/offshore-windparks-lebensraum
1.http://www.galloperwindfarm.com/index.php
2,http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/310134/rwe-innogy/sites/wind-offshore/under-construction/the-proposal/
3.http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/1236288/rwe-innoldgy/sites/wind-offshore/developing-sites/galloper/
4.http://www.zeit.de/wissen/umwelt/2013-03/offshore-windparks-lebensraum