Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the use of wind farms constructed in bodies of water, usually in the ocean on the continental shelf, to harvest wind energy to generate electricity. Higher wind speeds are available offshore compared to on land, so offshore wind power’s contribution in terms of electricity supplied is higher, and NIMBY opposition to construction is usually much weaker. Unlike the typical usage of the term "offshore" in the marine industry, offshore wind power includes inshore water areas such as lakes, fjords and sheltered coastal areas, utilizing traditional fixed-bottom wind turbine technologies, as well as deeper-water areas utilizing floating wind turbines.
@Wikipedia
Wind farms can be combined with solar panels. One study by López, Rodriguez & Iglesias (2020) concerned the sea area north of Asturias, Spain (more or less the Spanish area in the Bay of Biscay) and concluded that the density of a combined wind and solar farm would be about 57.5 MW per km2.
Wind Farms are used to produce green energy, the production amount is calculated based on the maximum amount of energy that can be produced in the designated area.
Wind Farms are polygons, i.e., geometric shapes that you can draw in, edit or remove when making a plan. They create the following pressures on the ecosystem:
Return to energy.
The placement restrictions decide whether the overlap of spatial elements causes:
Errors - Impossible to place these layers on top of each other due to physical limitation.
Warnings - Warnings that it should be done, but won't stop the placement.
The ecological pressures are scaled on a level from 0 to 1; with 0 meaning no pressure, and 1 meaning the maximal impact on that pressure.
Wind farms disallow all the bottom trawl, and industrial and pelagic trawl fishing fleets. Drift and fixed nets fleets are only disallowed during construction.
The source of existing wind parks in The Netherlands has been updated for the Dutch EEZ according to data from the Rijkswaterstaat, retrieved on 2024-10. For the rest of the North Sea area the source is OSPAR.
From rijkswaterstaat: Aangewezen windgebieden NWP
From OSPAR: OSPAR Offshore Renewable Energy Developments - 2020
From rijkswaterstaat: The Dutch government has designated wind energy areas in the North Sea: Borssele, Hollandse Kust (south, north, and west), IJmuiden Ver, Ten Noorden van de Waddeneilanden, Nederwiek, Lagelander, and Doordewind. These wind energy areas were designated (or reaffirmed) in the North Sea Programme 2022-2027. With a few exceptions, these areas lie outside the 12-mile zone, at least 22 kilometers from the coast. Only in these wind energy areas may plots for wind farms be allocated under the Offshore Wind Energy Act. When a wind farm is under construction or in operation, a safety zone is established around the area to be protected. Within this safety zone, access to ships is prohibited, with some exceptions.
From OSPAR: Details of the location and status of offshore renewable energy developments in the OSPAR region,
2017/10. Updated on 2024-10.
The wind farms that are in operation were implemented in the energy simulation as such.
In this edition the wind farms are updated in the Dutch Continental Shelf according to data from Rijkswaterstaat, including additional plans to implement the Hollandse Kust (west) wind farm in January 2027.
This edition uses the same data and plan as the Digitwin North Sea edition.
In the Baltic Sea, the development of renewable energy is focused on wind farms. For the sake of allowing users to plan for different types of renewable energy in the Baltic Sea, the renewable energy accounts for wind, wave and tidal energy (see types below).
At the moment in the Baltic Sea there are only 6MW wind turbines, but the following types are available for planning purposes:
Errors - Impossible to place these layers on top of each other due to physical limitations.
HELCOM HOLAS II Dataset: Wind farms (2018)
Wind farms
"The data set contains information on the location of individual turbines of the offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea area.
In addition to information on the location of the wind farms, the following information is included: Name, Country, Status (Generating power or under construction), Company, Capacity MW (whole park), number of turbines (whole park), construction year and source."
Description retrieved from HELCOM's metadata page for this resource (2021-07-19).
2016-04-06
The Wind Farms layer in the Western Baltic Sea Edition remains consistent with that featured in the Baltic Sea edition.
Not applicable. At the moment of development of the Clyde Marine Region edition there were no wind farms in the region. This layer exists just for planning purposes.
Not applicable. Pressure calculation is not present in the Adriatic Sea Edition.
Not applicable.
At the moment of development of the Adriatic Sea edition there were no wind farms in the region. This layer exists just for planning purposes.
Not applicable. Pressure calculation is not present (yet) in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea Edition.
At the moment of development of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea edition there were no wind farms in the region. This layer exists just for planning purposes.
Co-funded by the European Union.