A whole-energy system perspective to floating wind turbines and airborne wind energy in The North Sea region

Abstract

In light of the energy transition to a fossil-free energy system, Europe is experiencing a colossal shift toward renewable energy generation. To facilitate the rapidly growing demand for clean energy, new technologies, and resources are being investigated. Airborne wind energy (AWE) and floating wind turbines have the potential to unlock untapped wind resource potential and contribute to the balancing of the system in unique ways. So far, the techno-economic potential of both technologies has only been investigated at small scale, while the most significant benefits will likely play out on a system scale. Demonstrating the economic feasibility and additional benefits of emerging technologies in an energy system context is vital to accelerate political traction and funding.
This research aimed to find the main system-level trade-offs involved with integrating AWE and floating wind turbines in a highly-renewable future energy system. To do so, a modelling workflow was developed that consists of future costs and performance estimation, wind resource assessment and integration into a high-resolution large-scale energy system cost-optimization model, based on the Calliope modelling framework. The investigated region contains 10 countries in the North Sea region. The wind resource and system balancing are hourly-resolved. Key findings include:

Onshore AWE significantly outperforms onshore wind turbines due to higher wind resource availability.

The main limiting factor in large-scale onshore AWE deployment is the spatial energy density.

Offshore AWE shows highly identical performance compared to offshore wind alternatives.

Deployment of offshore AWE is mainly cost driven.

Floating wind turbines demonstrate great potential because of the high capacity factors that can be achieved in high wind resource areas where conventional offshore wind is not technically feasible.

Offshore wind potential in general strongly depends on available onshore technical potential.
The outcomes show significant potential for both emerging technologies that could be realized in the near future. This study provides first exploratory findings that lay the foundation for future studies in the context of this research topic. Multiple directions for follow-up research have been identified to quantify this potential in more detail.