BMT Renewables Simulates Giant Wind Farm Operation
17-Jul-2006
BMT Renewables is to carry out advanced offshore & marine modelling for one of the UK's most ambitious offshore wind farm projects at Sheringham Shoal, situated off the Norfolk coast.
The project - a joint venture by Scira Offshore Energy Limited, a company formed between Hydro, SLP Energy and Ecoventures - will play a crucial role in meeting the UK Government's target to produce 10 per cent of the country's electricity from renewable energy by 2010.
The wind farm will provide enough clean, pollution free, "home grown" energy for approximately 178,000 homes, almost twice the equivalent electricity required to supply the whole of the north Norfolk coast.
BMT will use its MW-COST tool, which is based on renewable energy-specific enhancements to BMT's widely adopted SLOOP monte carlo simulation technology.
SLOOP has been used to simulate many millions of hours of operations on a wide range of offshore installations and support assets on behalf of oil majors and project developers.
Dr Phil Thompson, Managing Director of BMT Renewables, said: "Sheringham Shoal will make a significant contribution to the UK's renewable energy targets and it is an exciting opportunity for BMT to use all of its offshore operability expertise on the development of such a key project.
"Offshore wind farm development poses technical and economic risks, particularly in relation to the marine environment but BMT's ability to assess these risks will provide Scira with the information it needs to progress this important work."
As well as dealing with disruption caused by weather, the MW-COST tool incorporates the ability to include the effect of random and non random equipment failures and regular and corrective maintenance processes.
The Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm is likely to contain between 60 and 90 wind turbines, with a maximum output of approximately 315MW of electricity.
The UK has the largest wind resource of all of Europe and the north Norfolk coast is one of the most practical locations for harnessing renewable energy with its strong offshore winds.
