Title :
Review of offshore wind power development in the United Kingdom
Author :
Higgins, Peter ; Foley, A.M.
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Mech. & Aerosp. Eng., Queen´s Univ. Belfast, Belfast, UK
Abstract :
Currently wind power is dominated by onshore wind farms. However, as the demand for power grows driven by security of energy supply issues, dwindling fossil fuel supplies and greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, offshore wind power will develop rapidly because of the decline of viable onshore sites. The United Kingdom has a target of 21% renewable electricity by 2020 and this is expected to come mostly from wind power. Britain is the most active internationally in terms of offshore wind farm development with almost 48GW in some stage of development. In addition the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland undertook the `Irish-Scottish Links on Energy Study´ (ISLES), which examined the feasibility of creating an offshore interconnected transmission network and subsea electricity grid based on renewable energy sources off the coast of western Scotland and the Irish Sea. The aim of this paper is to provide an appraisal of offshore wind power development with a focus on the United Kingdom.
Keywords :
air pollution control; energy security; offshore installations; power grids; wind power plants; Britain; Government of Ireland; ISLES; Irish sea; Irish-Scottish Links on Energy Study; Northern Ireland Executive; Scottish government; United Kingdom; energy supply security; fossil fuel supplies; greenhouse gas emission reduction; offshore interconnected transmission network; offshore wind power development; onshore wind farms; renewable electricity; renewable energy sources; subsea electricity grid; western Scotland; Blades; Europe; Industries; Poles and towers; Wind farms; Wind power generation; Wind turbines; Electricity markets; Offshore wind; Policy; Wind power;
Conference_Titel :
Environment and Electrical Engineering (EEEIC), 2013 12th International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Wroclaw
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-3060-2
DOI :
10.1109/EEEIC.2013.6549584