Hundreds of wind turbines to be built in Firth of Forth

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/Hundreds-of-wind-turbines-to.5965818.jp

Hundreds of wind turbines to be built in Firth of Forth

Published Date: 08 January 2010
By Jenny Fyall

THE government will today give the green light for up to 1,000 offshore wind turbines to be built in two locations off the Scottish coast.

Rights are expected to be granted for developers to build huge projects in nine locations around the British coast, in a massive expansion of offshore wind generation. Two of the spots earmarked are in the Firth of Forth and the Moray Firth.

Rights will be granted by the Crown Estate, which owns the seabeds on behalf of the government, to winning bidders, as part of the Round 3 Offshore Wind programme.

In total, this tranche of offshore wind development is expected to generate up to 32 GW of electricity – the equivalent of 18 new coal-fired power stations – by about 2020. This is the equivalent to about a quarter of UK demand.

…

[madokie]

1. More good news

[Champion Jack]

2. .

Great news!!

[joshcryer]

3. Can they do better than 100 a year?

Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking this at all, I am just wondering if they can ramp production up more than that.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Yes, but not much

Construction won't start until 2014 at least, and the plant to build 100+/yr. hasn’t been set up yet.

[joshcryer]

5. Ahh, if they won't start until 2014, then that puts 'em over 150 a year.

Better. I'm thinking one a day for big projects like this is a good number to aspire to. Just opinion, of course.

[kristopher]

6. Yes they can.

The rate of installation is determined largely by the availability of ships properly configured for placing the towers and nacelle. To my knowledge there is only one in the world right now, but more are on the way.

With the ship the rate of placement is one per day of workable weather. I'd guess that you might have up to 50% of the year when you can't work.

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. From the article

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/Hundreds-of-wind-turbines-to.5965818.jp

…

Meanwhile, it is anticipated that £1.5 million will be granted today to Burntisland Fabrications Ltd in Fife to set up a manufacturing facility that can build more than 100 turbine "jacket" sub-structures per year by 2011. This will be part of £8m of grants across the UK to support the supply chain for offshore wind farms.

…

[kristopher]

8. And that relates to what I wrote how?

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. Um…

“The rate of installation is determined largely by the availability of ships properly configured for placing the towers and nacelle.”

Even with an infinite number of ships, they cannot install turbines faster than they can manufacture them.

[Merchant Marine]

9. They've also been doing inshore work

With the old tug and barge combo- one barge with stuff on it, and a self-propelled crane barge to do the lifting.