Research on Operation Safety of Offshore Wind Farms

On maintenance optimization for offshore wind farms

On maintenance optimization for offshore wind farms FRANÇOIS BESNARD Abstract The maintenance cost is known to be an important part of the levelized cost of energy generated by wind parks. Operational costs can be significantly reduced by optimizing decisions for maintenance strategies, maintenance support organization and maintenance planning. This is especially important for offshore wind pow...

Optimal Maintenance Management of Offshore Wind Farms

Nowadays offshore wind energy is the renewable energy source with the highest growth. Offshore wind farms are composed of large and complex wind turbines, requiring a high level of reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS). Firms are employing robust remote condition monitoring systems in order to improve RAMS, considering the difficulty to access the wind farm. The main obje...

Assessment of the Effects of Offshore Wind Farms on Birds

Mapping Seabird Sensitivity to Offshore Wind Farms

We present a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool, SeaMaST (Seabird Mapping and Sensitivity Tool), to provide evidence on the use of sea areas by seabirds and inshore waterbirds in English territorial waters, mapping their relative sensitivity to offshore wind farms. SeaMaST is a freely available evidence source for use by all connected to the offshore wind industry and will assist statutor...

Potential Impacts of Offshore Wind Farms on North Sea Stratification

Advances in offshore wind farm (OWF) technology have recently led to their construction in coastal waters that are deep enough to be seasonally stratified. As tidal currents move past the OWF foundation structures they generate a turbulent wake that will contribute to a mixing of the stratified water column. In this study we show that the mixing generated in this way may have a significant impa...