Resource World Magazine

D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 www.resourceworld.com 83 GREEN TECHNOLOGIES construction of the facility, while around 45 people will be permanently employed at the site after it is operational, later this year. Ørsted said just one of the structures can generate more energy than all the tur- bines of Vindeby, the world's first offshore wind farm in Denmark. The company's prototype turbine broke the energy generation record for a com- mercially available offshore wind turbine on December 1, 2016, when it produced 216,000 kilowatt hours over a 24-hour period. Chief Executive Henrik Poulsen said, "Burbo Bank Extension showcases the rapid innovation in the offshore wind industry. Less than 10 years ago at Burbo Bank, we were the first to install Siemens 3.6-megawatt wind turbines and in this short time, the wind turbines have more than doubled in capacity. Pushing inno- vation in this way reduces the cost of electricity from offshore wind and will help to advance the offshore wind indus- try across the world." Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said, "The offshore wind industry has a huge contribution to make to the growing UK-based supply chain, and utilizing our renewable energy sources is vital to ensuring the Liverpool City Region cements its position as a low- carbon leader." England's counterparts are also design- ing and developing new wind technology. For example, researchers in the United States are designing a new wind turbine that will reach 1,574 feet (479 metres into the sky – 100 feet (30 metres) – taller than the Empire State Building. Most wind tur- bines are around 328 feet (100 metres) tall. The giant blades would generate up to 50 megawatts of electricity, or 25 times more than a typical turbine. By comparison, this would roughly power 44,400 average fam- ily homes. To keep the structures stable, the diam- eter would be roughly 1,312 feet (400 metres). The design is called segmented ultralight morphing rotors (SUMR). The turbines wouldn't face the wind but would go downwind, aligning the blades to flow with the wind instead of fighting it. Instead of a single stiff blade, each blade will be broken into segments, allowing it to be built and transported more easily. The con- cept would also allow the blades to spread out when the wind is blowing lightly to capture as much power as possible. Sharing new technologies and dem- onstrating best practices in support infrastructure, such as those showcased in the Liverpool, will help England's counter- parts worldwide to develop more powerful and cost-effective wind farms. WIND POWER MAKES WAVES IN ATLANTIC CANADA To bring wind power to the Atlantic coast, Beothuk Energy Inc. (BEI), an international green energy company head- quartered in St. John's, Newfoundland (NL), and its strategic partner, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), are develop- ing a CDN $466 million wind farm site. The site has a planned capacity of 180 megawatts (MW) and is located about 30 km offshore in Bay St. George. Christina Grumstrup Sørensen, a senior partner with Copenhagen Infrastructure, said in a state- ment, "We see significant potential for offshore wind in Atlantic Canada due to strong winds, shallow water, and an exist- ing industry with experience in working in an offshore environment for many years." The site will cover a 20 square nauti- cal mile area, with water depths averaging about 40 metres and will see 30 turbines on towers paired to gravity-based structures, each generating 6 MW. The anticipated cost for this project is estimated to be less than 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. The con- sultants and BEI have access to established data sets and 67 years of wind data for analysis and will be assessing an extensive collection of seismic, hydrographic, and bathymetric data. The proposed wind farm site is out- side of shipping lanes and away from bird migration routes. It includes turbines with 90-metre blades connected to a central hub rising 130 metres from sea level. "Using bigger turbines offshore where there are stronger and steadier winds greatly improves a wind farm's efficiency and helps make it more price competitive with other forms of energy," said Kirby Mercer, Chairman and CEO of Beothuk Energy. "On shore, you're lucky to get 40% effi- ciency," he said. "Offshore, you're getting 50% to 60% efficiency." BEI and CIP, both privately held companies, are also jointly funding the development phase of a 180-megawatt wind farm off the southwestern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador, which is expected to cost roughly CDN $500 mil- lion. This is enough energy to power more than 150,000 households and the project's construction phase is expected to create 500 jobs. "We hope to start construction in 2019 and be ready by 2022," said Mercer. He further stated, "Offshore wind in Atlantic Canada is of national significance in the energy mix, creating a new sector, reducing the nation's carbon footprint, building on synergies with Atlantic Canada's offshore oil and gas industry and putting many highly skilled displaced workers to work in the fast growing clean energy sector." BEI plans to eventually build five proposed wind farms, two located in Newfoundland, starting with the one at St. George's Bay, and Burgeo Banks, and one project each located in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, altogether producing a total of 4,000 MW of energy. n

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