Process-based balance of system cost modeling for offshore wind power plants in the United States
Abstract
This paper describes the development of a process-based and open-source balance of system cost model that provides the capability to evaluate both existing and novel offshore wind technologies. Individual design and installation steps are represented with bottom-up engineering models that compute times and costs associated with the process; furthermore, operational constraints are assigned to each process so that delays caused by weather and presence of marine mammals may be accounted for in the overall project timeline. The model structure, assumptions, inputs, and results are vetted with industry partners and compared against actual projects for validation. Installation times show reasonable agreement with real data. Project cost sensitivities are investigated to compute the system-level impact of different design choices. First, individual vessel efficiencies are computed for varying numbers of installation vessels and weather time series to show the diminishing returns of more than two feeder barges. Then, array cable capital costs and installation times are determined for a representative project with different turbine sizes. These values quantify the cost-benefit tradeoffs and show a net-cost savings of decreasing numbers of turbines, increased turbine spacing, and fewer turbine terminations. These results demonstrate that the balance of system model features the accuracy, functionality, and accessibilitymore »
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1659965
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5000-77190
Journal ID: ISSN 1742-6588; MainId:26136;UUID:2b727308-665e-4b80-8498-85ca1fecab7b;MainAdminID:13701
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Physics. Conference Series
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 1452; Journal ID: ISSN 1742-6588
- Publisher:
- IOP Publishing
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 17 WIND ENERGY; balance of system cost model; offshore wind technologies
Citation Formats
Shields, Matthew, and Nunemaker, Jacob. Process-based balance of system cost modeling for offshore wind power plants in the United States. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1452/1/012039.
Shields, Matthew, & Nunemaker, Jacob. Process-based balance of system cost modeling for offshore wind power plants in the United States. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1452/1/012039
Shields, Matthew, and Nunemaker, Jacob. Wed .
"Process-based balance of system cost modeling for offshore wind power plants in the United States". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1452/1/012039. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1659965.
@article{osti_1659965,
title = {Process-based balance of system cost modeling for offshore wind power plants in the United States},
author = {Shields, Matthew and Nunemaker, Jacob},
abstractNote = {This paper describes the development of a process-based and open-source balance of system cost model that provides the capability to evaluate both existing and novel offshore wind technologies. Individual design and installation steps are represented with bottom-up engineering models that compute times and costs associated with the process; furthermore, operational constraints are assigned to each process so that delays caused by weather and presence of marine mammals may be accounted for in the overall project timeline. The model structure, assumptions, inputs, and results are vetted with industry partners and compared against actual projects for validation. Installation times show reasonable agreement with real data. Project cost sensitivities are investigated to compute the system-level impact of different design choices. First, individual vessel efficiencies are computed for varying numbers of installation vessels and weather time series to show the diminishing returns of more than two feeder barges. Then, array cable capital costs and installation times are determined for a representative project with different turbine sizes. These values quantify the cost-benefit tradeoffs and show a net-cost savings of decreasing numbers of turbines, increased turbine spacing, and fewer turbine terminations. These results demonstrate that the balance of system model features the accuracy, functionality, and accessibility to serve as the foundation for a wide range of analyses to identify cost reduction potentials for offshore wind energy in the United States.},
doi = {10.1088/1742-6596/1452/1/012039},
journal = {Journal of Physics. Conference Series},
number = ,
volume = 1452,
place = {United States},
year = {2020},
month = {3}
}
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