Offshore Wind Turbine Pictures

Offshore Wind Turbines

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Denmark with Vindeby
The world's first offshore wind farm is located North of the island of Lolland in the Southern part of Denmark

Vindeby
Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm The Vindeby wind farm (32K, JPEG) in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark was built in 1991 by the utility company SEAS.
The wind farm consists of 11 Bonus 450 kW stall controlled wind turbines, and is located between 1.5 and 3 kilometres North of the coast of the island of Lolland near the village of Vindeby.
The turbines were modified to allow room for high voltage transformers inside the turbine towers, and entrance doors are located at a higher level than normally. These same modifications were carried over to the subsequent Tunø Knob project.
Two anemometer masts were placed at the site to study wind conditions, and turbulence, in particular. A number of interesting results on offshore wind conditions have been obtained through these studies which were carried out by Risø National Laboratory.
The park has been performing flawlessly.
Electricity production is about 20 per cent higher than on comparable land sites, although production is somewhat diminished by the wind shade from the island of Lolland to the South.
(Photograph copyright Bonus Energy A/S)

Denmark w/ Tunoe Knob
The world's second offshore wind farm is located between the Jutland peninsula and the small island of Tunø in Denmark

Tunø Knob
Tunø Knob Construvtion The Tunø Knob offshore wind farm (36K, JPEG) in the Kattegat Sea off the Coast of Denmark was built in 1995 by the utility company Midtkraft. The picture shows the construction work with a floating crane.
The Wind farm consists of 10 Vestas 500 kW pitch controlled wind turbines.
The turbines were modified for the marine environment, each turbine being equipped with an electrical crane to be able to replace major parts such as generators without the need for a floating crane.
In addition, the gearboxes were modified to allow a 10 per cent higher rotational speed than on the onshore version of the turbine. This will give an additional electricity production of some 5 per cent. This modification could be carried out because noise emissions are not a concern with a wind park located 3 kilometres offshore from the island of Tunø, and 6 kilometres off the coast of the mainland Jutland peninsula.
The park has been performing extremely well, and production results have been substantially higher than expected, cf. the page on offshore wind conditions.
(Photograph copyright Vestas Wind Systems A/S)

The Future of Offshore Wind Energy
Offshore wind energy is an extremely promising application of wind power, particularly in countries with high population density, and thus difficulties in finding suitable sites on land. Construction costs are much higher at sea, but energy production is also much higher.
The Danish electricity companies have announced major plans for installation of up to 4 000 megawatts of wind energy offshore in the years after the year 2000. The 4 000 MW of wind power is expected to produce some 13.5 TWh of electricity per year, equivalent to 40 per cent of Danish electricity consumption.