offshore grids for wind power integration - Greenpeace

methodology
“A SITUATION WHICH IS LIKELY TO BE ACHIEVED, UNDER FAVOURABLE CONDITIONS, AND WHICH WILL HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT
ON NECESSARY GRID DEVELOPMENTS.”
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© PAUL LANGROCK/ZENIT/GREENPEACE
image VESTAS WIND SYSTEMS A/S IN RINGKOBING, DENMARK, PRODUCING WIND MILLS/ROTORS FOR OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY.
3.1 installed wind power scenario
The wind power scenario used in this study is developed in close
cooperation with the European project TradeWind [15].
Geographically, the scenario is limited to the North Sea.The total
installed capacity envisioned amounts to 68408 MW (Table 2).This
figure lies in between the 2020 and 2030 EWEA offshore targets
for all Europe being 40 GW and 120 GW, respectively. In practice
the capacities in Table 1 may be exceeded in some countries while
in other countries the installed capacities may be lower due to
projects not being realized that are anticipated here. In this
context, the authors consider the proposed scenario as a best guess
for the long term. It represents a situation which is likely to be
achieved, under favourable conditions, and which will have a
significant impact on necessary grid developments.
It is important to note that in this study no time frame is indicated,
since the objective is not to present an installed capacity forecast,
but rather to serve as input for an impact analysis.The offshore
wind power capacity in the North Sea as finally available in 2030
could very well be considerably higher. Furthermore, the study does
not account for emerging technology solutions like floating wind
turbines on the open sea, wave power and tidal stream power
generation.Therefore, in terms of these emerging technologies, the
scenario is conservative.
Besides country-specific data, the scenario is based on the database
of Douglas Westwood (DW) [20] and on the TradeWind scenario’s
developed in work package 2 [21]. A bottom-up approach starting
from lists of projects is combined with a top-down approach based
on the national and international targets. For each country the
resulting list is verified by the Greenpeace national divisions and
partly by the national wind energy associations. A situation of the
scenario in line with the current national and international targets
is given below.The gathered data include the name of the project or
location, the projected installed capacity and the geographical
coordinates. A list of the projects and installed capacity per country
can be found in Annex A.
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