Where are offshore windfarms and where will they be?
Development in Norfolk/Suffolk, reasons for
location.
The Eastern region is particularly well-suited to the offshore
wind industry as it has fantastic geographical, industrial and academic
expertise.
- Low tidal changes
- Shallow water
- Good wind speeds
- Suitable seabed conditions
- Prime location
- Good infrastructure
- Good communications
- Skills base
- Facilites & Expertise
Low tidal changes
The tidal ranges off the Norfolk/Suffolk coast are the lowest around
the British coast making wind turbine installation and maintenance
easier and cheaper as fewer resources are required. These waters
are preferable to the high tidal ranges of the Humber region.
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Shallow water
The waters off the Norfolk/Suffolk coast are shallow meaning a
shorter, cheaper wind turbine can be used, and making installation
and maintenance easier. Around Scroby
Sands the waters are well protected against
extreme wave action by the sandbanks. Top
Good wind speeds
The annual mean wind speed is 7.5-9 metres/second. This is ideal
for current offshore wind turbine technologies. Being offshore reduces
wind turbulence and the wind is more consistent and less extreme.
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Suitable seabed conditions
The Norfolk/Suffolk seabed is predominantly chalk and sand, both
soft rocks that make the hammering in of wind turbines easier.
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Prime location
Located between two strategic development areas (the government
licensed development areas) – Greater Wash and Thames Estuary
– Norfolk/Suffolk and the ports of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth
are the perfect location for manufacturers to situate their operations.
Wind turbines can easily be built and floated out from the ports
to the wind farm sites. Norfolk/Suffolk is close to Europe and well
located to deliver electricity to the Southeast of England.
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Good Infrastructure
The infrastructure required for the manufacture, installation and
operation of offshore wind turbines either already exists in East
Anglia, as Mapergy
highlights, or could easily be brought in.
As a result of the region’s oil and gas industry undersea
pipelines are in place which could be utilised for feeding electricity
cables through to connect the turbines with the National Grid. The
Grid infrastructure is well equipped to deliver electricity to the
bordering regions but as production increases will need to be expanded.
Norfolk/Suffolk’s two ports, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth,
are suitably deep and easily navigable and are accustomed to operating
twenty-four seven so are ideal for floating the wind turbines out
from and as focal points for maintenance and operations. The docks
in the Humber region are closed and those of the Thames Estuary
are container ports only and unable to cope with the capacity required
for manufacturing and transporting a wind turbine.
Although Yarmouth and Lowestoft are the most suitable sites available
Andy Hilton, the Project Manager at Scroby Sands, fears that the
facilities are not able to accommodate the weight of wind turbines
nor handle the capacity required for Round
Two developments. He supports the building
of an outer
Yarmouth harbour for this purpose which would
attract wind turbine manufacturers to the region.
Government investment at a grassroots level is necessary to ensure
that the UK, and the Norfolk/Suffolk region, have the necessary
infrastructure in place to attract wind turbine manufacturers and
developers. The piles and turbine towers at Scroby Sands were sourced
from the UK and it is possible to purchase wind turbines from Scotland
although most are purchased from Europe. Top
Good communications
Norfolk/Suffolk is close to London and to the Southeast of England.
Train links across the region are good and well connected to serve
London’s airports. As the components for wind turbine manufacture
are brought in by sea a good road network is not essential.
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Skills base
Following the collapse of the fishing industry there is a qualified
marine workforce awaiting a new industry. As a result of the oil
and gas industry off the Eastern coast there is an abundance of
world class expertise in installing and maintaining oil platforms
and pipelines, skills that are transferable for the manufacture,
installation and maintenance of offshore wind turbines.
Mapergy
shows the region’s many companies already involved in the
wind farm supply chain. Top
Facilities and Expertise
East Anglia heralds some of the UK’s top research institutions
into climate change and renewable energy technologies such as the
Tyndall Centre
for Climate Change Research and the Climatic Research Unit at
the University of
East Anglia.
Cranfield University boasts wind tunnels and Cambridge University
has a wave tank; both useful assets for manufacturers and developers.
The Centre for
Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science is also located
in the region in Lowestoft. Plans are going ahead for a Centre Of
Excellence for Offshore
Wind that would make Lowestoft the regional, and potentially
national, centre for offshore wind technology.
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