The Offshore Wind Supply Chain Strategy Report 2011 has been released, showing the heightened growth potential of the offshore wind turbine from its current 2-7 MW capacity range to 10-20 MW over the next 10-15 years.
The report’s authors say that one of the main drivers behind the increase in size is to improve OEMs economies of scale on offshore projects and reduce cost. One OEM said: “Components increasing in size is a natural development of an immature industry. The real problem will be in the logistics and how to transport extremely large components.” Another told the report: “The coming 10-20MW turbines will be floating. This means that the critical components will be blades, drive train, and generator. Less critical but still challenging will be a floating foundation.”
OEMs told the report’s authors that they were pushing the “design envelope” on both blades and bearings to drive improved scale.
One of the main findings of the report was that OEMs wanted to work closer with their component suppliers on design and innovation issues including the sharing of conceptual ideas and data to shared testing.
The report highlights the case study of blade component manufacturer LM Windpower and its partnership work with OEM Alstom. Both parties are developing new 61.5 meter blades for use on a new 6 MW turbine to be used on the Thornton Bank offshore site in Belgium. More of these partnerships are likely to follow in the years ahead.
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