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DOWN TO EARTH: Offshore wind farms, Copenhagen
6 Dec 2008
The image above, taken by the Japanese Advanced Land-Observing Satellite, shows the coastal area of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. A semicircular Middelgrundsfortet, or sea fortress, can be seen in the sea in the upper right. South of the fortress, can be seen 20 wind turbines installed along a gentle arc in the north-south direction. Some ships can also be seen (white points). In the larger image you can see the rotor blades of each wind turbine and their angles.
This is the Middelgrunden offshore wind farm, which was installed in a 4- to 8m-deep shoal two to three kilometres off the coast and began operation in 2001. This shoal has been used as a dumpsite for harbour sludge and other waste for more than 200 years.
The hub of each wind turbine is 64m high, and the diameter of the rotor is 76m, making a total height of 102m. Each turbine generates 2MW (megawatts) of power, which is sent to the land via a 3.5-kilometre-long undersea cable.
The total generated power is 40MW, over three percent of the electric power consumed in Copenhagen. It is a symbolic facility for Denmark, which has the most offshore wind energy capacity in Europe. Copenhagen Energy owns the ten northern turbines, and Middelgrunden Wind Turbine Cooperative owns the ten southern one.
On the left of the larger image you can find seven smaller wind turbines on the bank.
There are many shared wind turbines in Denmark. Individuals and families own one-quarter of the 3,100MW of wind power capacity in the country, and individual farmers own two-third. Only one-tenth is owned by electric utilities or large corporations.
The European Wind Energy Association (EWE) reported that two 160MW-class offshore wind farms are operational and that two 200MW offshore wind farms are under construction in Denmark. It also reported that Europe's offshore wind power capacity at the end of 2007 was 1,083MW with Denmark accounting for 39 percent followed by the United Kingdom at 37 percent. EWE predicts that the capacity will reach 20,000 to 40,000MW in 2020.
The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) reported that the wind-power generation capacity worldwide (including offshore and onshore generators) reached 93.9GW (1 gigawatt = 1,000MW) at the end of 2007 after increasing by 27 percent during the year. The higher ranked five countries where the wind power generation ability was increased remarkably are Germany (22.3GW), the US (16.8GW), Spain (15.1GW), India (7.8GW), and China (5.9GW).
GWEC predicts that the wind-power generation capacity worldwide will exceed 240GW in 2012. The wind-power generation capacity in Japan increased rapidly from 136MW in 2000 to 1,538MW at the end of 2007. However, it pointed out that Japan has so far developed only 11MW out of its potential offshore wind power generation capacity because of some constraints such as severe weather conditions including typhoons, application of the revised Building Code (the regulation is going to be eased), and the remote location of most potential wind-power sites far from the areas of greatest electricity demand.
Adapted from information issued by JAXA.
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