Offshore wind cost optimisation: developing market strategies for the next generation of offshore wind farms

Abstract

Offshore Wind has a vast potential to reduce carbon emissions and create economic prosperity, as well as increasing energy security of supply. For these potential resources to be exploited, and to build an offshore wind market fit for the future, the sector has to remain competitive, increase energy yield and reduce financing and technology uncertainties. The main focus of the industry is to create a market that drives innovation and competition, supporting growth and keeping costs down for consumers [1]. This research will assess the current market strategies of the offshore wind by organising the work into five parts: The first section will discuss the main drivers of the electricity market globally. The UK offshore wind market will be assessed to understand the main strategic drivers of the market. The third section will explore the innovative approaches used in advanced sectors, such as the automotive and aerospace industries. The review of the innovative approaches, identified the Quality Function Deployment, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving and the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis methods as the most appropriate integrated methods that can assist the designer to consider all the interactions between technical solutions to a problem, and the necessary compromises that are required to meet the design requirements. The structured innovation approach is presented and tested in Section four, followed by the demonstration of the application of the method on a direct drive generator and floating subsystem. The results of the two case studies are discussed in the final section followed by a conclusion of the report.