International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 6

Number 4

December 2012

1 INTRODUCTION

After a huge wave of interest in the construction of

wind farms on land increasing interest in the

construction of offshore wind farms, motivates many

European countries, including Poland, to changes in

the law, allowing it to such investments at sea

(offshore industry). Already in the nineties of the

last century began to be interested in siting offshore

wind farms. Denmark, the United Kingdom, the

Scandinavian countries and the United States have

developed a long-term project, which aimed to

analyze wind on the sea, finding a suitable location

for a farm, explore the depth of water, the formation

of the seabed, the routes of shipping, etc.

2 OFFSHORE WIND

The potential of offshore wind is enormous. It could

meet Europe’s energy demand seven times over, and

the United States’ energy demand four times over

[8].

Offshore wind is a relatively new technology, so

costs will reduce and the technology will advance,

helping offshore wind to be more efficient and cost

competitive in the near term. But this exciting

technology is already being incorporated into

government’s energy planning around the world.

More than 90% of the world’s offshore wind

power is currently installed off northern Europe, in

the North, Baltic and Irish Seas, and the English

Channel. Most of the rest is in two ‘demonstration’

projects off China’s east coast.

Offshore wind is an essential component of

Europe’s binding target to source 20% of final

energy consumption from renewables, and China has

set itself a target of 30 GW of installations off its

coast by 2020. The United States has excellent wind

resources offshore, and many projects are under

development, but there is no offshore wind power

installed yet.

The key benefits of offshore wind are:

− The wind resource offshore is generally much

greater, thus generating more energy from fewer

turbines;

− Most of the world’s largest cities are located near

a coastline. Offshore wind is suitable for large

Some Problems of the Offshore Wind Farms

in Poland

A. Weintrit, T. Neumann & K. Formela

Gdynia Maritime University, Gdynia, Poland

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the problems of wind power in Europe and the world, including the concept

of the first location of offshore wind farms off the coast of Poland. Taking into account regulatory restrictions

and technical opportunities, we can identify, evaluate and select prospective offshore wind farm locations.

Obvious concerns are the depth to the sea bottom, the distance from coastline, maritime traffic and geological

and climatic conditions.

459

scale development near the major demand

centers, avoiding the need for long transmission

lines;

− Building wind farms offshore makes sense in

very densely populated coastal regions with high

property values, because high property values

makes onshore development is expensive

sometimes leads to public opposition.

Figure 1. Example of an offshore wind farm [9]

Although offshore wind is often the most talked

about part of the wind sector, today it represents less

than 2% of global installed capacity. 2011

installations of about 1,000 MW represented ~2.5%

of the annual market. Some projections show that by

2020, offshore wind will be about 10% of global

installed capacity [8].

Figure 2. Global cumulative instaled wind capacity 1996-

2011 [8]

The European Union has passed the milestone of

100 gigawatt (GW) of installed wind power

capacity, according to the European Wind Energy

Association (EWEA).

Figure 3. Graph showing progression of European wind energy

(EWEA) [7]

100 GW of wind power can generate electricity

over a year to meet the total consumption of 57

million households, equivalent to the power

production of 39 nuclear power plants. It took the

European wind energy sector some twenty years to

get the first 10 GW grid connected. It only needed

13 years to add an additional 90 GW. Half of the

total European wind power capacity has been

installed over the past six years.

Recent wind turbine installations contributing to

the 100 GW milestone include [7]:

− Anholt offshore wind farm, 400 MW developed

by DONG off the coast of Denmark;

− Linowo, 48 MW developed by EDF Energies

Nouvelles Polska in Poland;

− Ausumgaard, 12 MW developed by a private

landowner in Denmark (West Jutland);

− Akoumia, 7.2 MW developed by Greek power

company PPCR on the island of Crete.

100 GW of wind power can produce the same

amount of electricity over a year as [7]:

− 62 coal power plants, or

− 39 nuclear power plants, or

− 52 gas power plants.

To produce the same amount of electricity as 100

GW of wind turbines in a year you would have to:

− mine, transport and burn 72 million tonnes of

coal, at a cost of €4,983 million, and emit 219.5

Mt of CO2, or

− extract, transport and burn 42.4 million cubic

meters of gas, at a cost of €7,537 million, and

emit 97.8 Mt of CO2.

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2.1 Wind Turbine

A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic

energy from the wind, also called wind energy, into

mechanical energy; a process known as wind power.

If the mechanical energy is used to produce

electricity, the device may be called wind turbine or

wind power plant. If the mechanical energy is used

to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or

pumping water, the device is called a windmill or

wind pump. Similarly, it may be called wind charger

when it is used to charge batteries.

The result of over a millennium of windmill

development and modern engineering, today's wind

turbines are manufactured in a wide range of vertical

and horizontal axis types. The smallest turbines are

used for applications such as battery charging or

auxiliary power on boats; while large grid-connected

arrays of turbines are becoming an increasingly

important source of wind power-produced

commercial electricity.

2.2 Wind Farm

A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same

location used to produce electric power. A large

wind farm may consist of several hundred individual

wind turbines, and cover an extended area of

hundreds of square miles, but the land between the

turbines may be used for agricultural or other

purposes. A wind farm may also be located offshore.

As of February 2012, the Fântânele-Cogealac

Wind Farm in Romania is the largest onshore wind

farm in the world at 600 MW. Many of the largest

operational onshore wind farms are located in the

USA and China. The Gansu Wind Farm in China

has over 5,000 MW installed with a goal of 20,000

MW by 2020. China has several other "wind power

bases" of similar size. The Alta Wind Energy Center

in California is the largest onshore wind farm

outside of China, with a capacity of 1020 MW of

power. As of February 2012, the Walney Wind Farm

in United Kingdom is the largest offshore wind farm

in the world at 367 MW, followed by Thanet

Offshore Wind Project (300 MW), also in the UK.

There are many large wind farms under

construction and these include Anholt Offshore

Wind Farm (400 MW), BARD Offshore 1 (400

MW), Clyde Wind Farm (350 MW), Greater

Gabbard wind farm (500 MW), Lincs Wind Farm

(270 MW), London Array (1000 MW), Lower Snake

River Wind Project (343 MW), Macarthur Wind

Farm (420 MW), Shepherds Flat Wind Farm (845

MW), and Sheringham Shoal (317 MW) [7],[8],[10].

3 SOME PROBLEMS IN LOCATION OF

OFFSHORE WIND FARMS IN POLAND

Taking into account regulatory restrictions and

technical opportunities, we can identify, evaluate

and select prospective offshore wind farm locations.

Obvious concerns are the depth to the sea bottom,

the distance from coastline, maritime traffic and

geological and climatic conditions.

Table 1. Geographic coordinates determining the position of

area B of offshore wind farms

___________________________________________________

WP No. Latitude Longitude

[00°00'00,0''] [00°00'00,0'']

___________________________________________________

1 55°06'20,78482'' N 018°01'53,28243'' E

2 55°06'24,52209'' N 018°03'20,54312'' E

3 55°05'58,79118'' N 018°04'06,49727'' E

4 55°05'31,88721'' N 018°05'00,24074'' E

5 55°05'04,10440'' N 018°05'37,71270'' E

6 55°04'38,36006'' N 018°06'23,61878'' E

7 55°04'21,46395'' N 018°07'03,29189'' E

8 55°03'54,30525'' N 018°08'30,93288'' E

9 55°03'41,37938'' N 018°09'19,60427'' E

10 55°02'27,08108'' N 018°09'19,54662'' E

11 55°02'10,61884'' N 018°01'53,40538'' E

___________________________________________________

Table 2. Geographic coordinates determining the position of

area C of offshore wind farms

___________________________________________________

WP No. Latitude Longitude

[

00°00'00,0''] [00°00'00,0'']

___________________________________________________

1 55°05'19,23601'' N 017°46'35,24897'' E

2 55°05'35,40626'' N 017°49'19,54800'' E

3 55°05'45,97360'' N 017°51'12,92083'' E

4 55°06'01,65557'' N 017°54'07,58456'' E

5 55°06'11,34555'' N 017°56'01,35240'' E

6 55°06'15,59407'' N 017°58'58,04276'' E

7 55°06'18,65590'' N 018°01'03,57448'' E

8 55°06'20,76941'' N 018°01'52,92250'' E

9 55°02'10,61866'' N 018°01'53,04538'' E

10 55°02'06,00000'' N 018°00'00,36000'' E

11 55°03'38,54832'' N 018°00'00,36000'' E

___________________________________________________

The proposed sample location of offshore wind

farms (based on a decision of the Polish Ministry of

Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy

MTBiGM

) is described by the coordinates given in

Table 1

and 2

. The first table contains data for the

area B (B-Wind Company Poland), next for the area

C (C-Wind Company Poland). Geographical

coordinates have been plotted on electronic chart of

northern coast of Poland using Transas Navi-Sailor

Decision No. MFW/7/12. Minister of Transport, Construction and

Maritime Economy. Warsaw, 9 May 2012.

Zespół Morskich Farm Wiatrowych (MFW) o maksymalnej łącznej

mocy 200 MW oraz infrastruktura techniczna, pomiarowo-

badawcza i serwisowa związana z etapem przygotowawczym,

realizacyjnym i eksploatacyjnym. B-WIND Polska Sp. z o.o. [1]

Zespół Morskich Farm Wiatrowych (MFW) o maksymalnej łącznej

mocy 200 MW oraz infrastruktura techniczna, pomiarowo-

badawcza i serwisowa związana z etapem przygotowawczym,

realizacyjnym i eksploatacyjnym. C-WIND Polska Sp. z o.o. [2]

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4000 ECDIS simulator system, located in the

Department of Navigation of Gdynia Maritime

University. Wind Farm Areas are located at a

distance of approximately 12 nautical miles north

from the Polish coast as shown on Figure 4. West

part of Area B is bordering east part of C Area.

Figure 4. Location of areas B and C of offshore wind farms.

Chart scale 1:600 000

The areas considered for future development like

installation and operation of offshore wind farms lies

on the route of the Stena ferry passenger service

between the ports of Gdynia and Karlskrona. Using

electronic chart application, an exemplary route

(Route01), with 166.8 Nm long passing through the

area for future investments has been created. The

planned ships route is shown in Figure 5 and

following as a continuous line.

Figure 5. B and C offshore wind farms areas with marked

routine route Gdynia-Karlskrona ferry. Chart scale 1:100 000

In the next step two alternative routes (Route02

and Route03) have been created in order to pass

development areas at minimum required distance not

less than 1 Nm, respectively north and south. Length

comparison of the existing routine and alternative

routes are given in Table 3.

Table 3. Length comparison of the routine and alternative

routes

___________________________________________________

Gdynia-Karlskrona Route Length Length Difference

[Mm] [%]

___________________________________________________

Route01 166,84 0,00%

Route02 167,03 0,11%

Route03 167,45 0,37%

___________________________________________________

Differences in the length of the routine and

proposed alternative routes by-passing planned

offshore wind farm areas are 0.19 Nm and 0.61 Nm

respectively, which is less than 0.5% of total length

of the route. It can be said that the route extension of

a vessel sailing o Gdynia - Karlskrona caused by

avoiding the areas B and C is negligible and can be

omitted.

Figure 6. Karlskrona – Gdynia route and alternative route

(north option). Chart scale 1:750 000 (upper part) and

1:200 000 (lower part)

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Figure 7. Karlskrona – Gdynia route and alternative route

(south option). Chart scale 1:750 000 (upper part) and

1:200 000 (lower part)

It should be noted that the extension of route

length is not the only problem to navigation, which

faces a ship trying to avoid an not navigable area. To

carry out a complete risk assessment on

development areas requires to take under

consideration all risks which may arise i.e.

organization and ship traffic, navigational

obstructions, the influence of hydro-meteorological

conditions, etc. The proposed investments of

offshore wind farm areas construction off the coast

of Polish will require the shipping route adjustments.

Location of a optimal number of wind turbines on

the wind farm on dedicated area will probably cause

a lot of problems.

4 COMPUTER APPLICATION SEEKING

DISTRIBUTION OF WIND POWER

STATIONS ON A DESIGNATED MARINE

AREA

Based on in-depth study of incoming data, decisions

are made about the wind farm concentration and

optimisation, the production capacity, the cable

routing and subsea crossings, the offshore grid

concentration, the selection of wind turbines.

The computer program for the distribution of

location of offshore wind power stations has been

developed for the Windows operating system in

Delphi Environment. The essence of the program is

to find the best possible distribution of the points in

such a way that compliance with a number of

limitations. The basics are:

− the minimum distance between two locations.

The assumption in the original version

permanently set at 1000 m was carried out as an

option to choose from a defined range of values

from 500 m to 1500 m

− the arrangement of wind power station.

Implemented two default construction of grids:

− quadratic grid

− triangular grid

− The margin area. The application assumes

constant margin 500 m in size, in which it is

impossible to wind the station location. The use

of margin space is an option when looking for a

solution.

Figure 8. Iterative algorithm calculating the most favorable

distribution of wind power station

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To find a solution of the problem of indicating the

location of wind power station to the given number

of them was as large as possible an iterative

algorithm proposed, whose scheme is shown in

Figure 8.

In this algorithm, network nodes, which can be

the location of wind power station, is moved in

increments of 10 m until they reach the position of

all the nodes of their successors. For each

configuration, the node value is computed inside an

area, having established margin and its absence. In

each iteration remembered the achieved result. If

there is a better than previously stored, the current

solution as the best is remembered. If the number of

nodes is equal to the best known value, the current

solution is added to a set of best solutions. Result of

the implementation of the algorithm is a set of

equivalent solutions, which achieved the highest

number of nodes in the search area.

Figure 9. View of window program used for locating wind

power stations in the C area (before and after the searching

task)

Activity of the application is shown in a certain,

irregular sea area, the shape was shown in Figure 9.

outer edges of the area. Constitute a restriction on

the outer edges of the area, the inner edges are

extended 500 m in an internal area in which

according to the restrictions.

The first stage of the calculation is to estimate the

number of nodes for the proposed grid by default.

The default grid is generated independently of the

defined area. For this proposed grid solutions are

sought in accordance with the algorithm presented a

better solution, moving the entire grid of 10 m to the

first node in the near future, a square area with sides

equal to the minimum distance that can be reached

from each other grid nodes (in this example, this

distance is 1000 m).

Figure 9 shows the result in which the solution

contains 54 default nodes throughout the considered

grid size and 34 nodes in the area with a margin.

As a result of the search obtained 217 equivalent

solutions, each of which complies with the

aforementioned assumptions, the number of possible

locations in the area with a margin increased to 38

nodes.

Presented application has been tested on a set

area in Figure 9. At a certain fixed distance set at

1000 m analyzed area 300 nodes placed at 500 m -

1,176 nodes and 1,500 meters - 136 nodes. The

maximum computation time is satisfactory and

amounted to 2.5 seconds.

It is necessary to further the development of

applications on adding new functionality. It seems

important to implement other solve the search for a

better solution. The authors want to look at

algorithms to solve knapsack problem [3], namely

the cutting stock problem. The use of these

algorithms will allow to increase the number of

nodes in a given area at the expense of introducing

confusion in the structure of the grid. Knowledge on

how to increase the number of wind power stations

can be useful in decision-making on the

implementation of the project.

5 CONCLUSIONS

This paper presents the problems of wind power in

Europe and the world, including the concept of the

first location of offshore wind farms off the coast of

Poland. Currently, the role of wind energy in the

Polish energy balance is small, but the situation is

gradually changing. Polish territory is dominated by

wind calm zones. The best wind conditions

prevailing in Poland on the Baltic Sea, near Suwałki

and the Carpathian mountains. Polish ‘wind basin’ is

the coastal belt around Darłowo and Puck.

464

Unfortunately, the Polish potential development

of offshore wind energy will not be used if there is

no support from the government. In 2011, came into

force the amended law on marine areas, to facilitate

the construction of offshore wind farms. So the rules

are, but for now, unfortunately, will not see the

development of the energy sector. It would be afraid

that if there is no clear policy statement that offshore

energy is something important for the country,

although there are investors and Polish companies

could be financial benefits to the state without the

government support the offshore wind energy in

Poland will not develop.

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