As the world’s energy sources quickly shift towards renewables, wind farms are becoming a leading source of sustainable power. With many of these wind farms being located miles off shore, engineers depend on subsea cables to move power to and from the farms. When dealing with miles of cables, length, wear and tear, and improper usage all propose challenges. Those reasons, coupled with the sheer pressure from the vast amounts of water, many things are bound to go wrong during the offshore engineering process of wind farms.
The facts about subsea cables:
- According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, subsea cables have to withstand 14.5 psi per every 10.05 meters into the ocean they are lowered.
- Subsea cables are susceptible to accidental breakage by natural disasters, anchor damage, soil/erosion related damage, and damage from installation. Such mishaps snap cables about 100 times a year.
- There are no agreed upon international or national standards for installing subsea cables.
Why does do all these issues matter? Subsea cable damage can put an entire wind farm out of service for months and can lead to damage to turbine equipment. A study done by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement on Offshore Electrical Cable Burial for Wind Farms estimates that 70% of insurance claims for offshore wind farms come from some kind of damage or breakage to the subsea cables.
As the industry grows, so do the risks associated with these wind farms failing. Europe and Asia lead in wind energy production globally – Denmark itself uses wind power for almost 40% of Danish domestic electricity. The United States continues to grow in the market as well, with the U.S. Department of Energy reporting that by 2030, wind power could supply 20% of all U.S. electricity. This rapid growth emphasizes the need for more dependable offshore engineering solutions.
PMI has years of experience in the offshore industries and continues to develop innovative hardware solutions for subsea cables. Let us help you tackle your offshore project needs.
Read more about studies done by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement regarding Offshore Electrical Cable Burial for Wind Farms.
PMI Industries, Inc.’s location will be extremely beneficial for clients along the east coast in the next few years. As New York is mandating 50 percent renewable energy by 2030, offshore wind and renewable companies will find themselves very busy along the eastern shoreline.
One innovative way for these industries to save cost while they begin ramping up their energy solutions is to find ways to reduce shipping costs on their subsea equipment needs. They can do this by working with companies, like PMI, who are situated nearby and have years of experience in offshore cable management.
Meet with a PMI Engineering Expert who will help you tackle your offshore project needs today.
“The Governor has already shown his vision for a successful low-carbon energy economy in New York thorough the state’s path-breaking Reforming the Energy Vision initiative, and ACORE applauds his continued leadership with the proposed mandate for 50 percent renewables by 2030,” said Dan Reicher, Interim President and CEO of ACORE and Executive Director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy & Finance at Stanford University. “With the adoption of this mandate, New York would join an elite group of states reaching for 50 percent clean, renewable power that cuts carbon emissions and grows the economy.”
Read more about New York’s Energy Mandate here.
While it appears as thought the U.S. is falling far behind Europe in the Offshore Wind and Wave Energy department, you really need to understand the lay of the land – literally.
The U.S. coastline, with a relatively small continental shelf, is not quite as amenable as Europe’s North Sea for offshore wave and wind. Conventional offshore wind turbines are limited to a depth of around 50 meters. In these depths, foundations are typically open truss frame structures that are anchored to the seabed. They are expensive to build and aimed at supporting extremely large turbines. The larger the turbine, the more energy it produces, keeping the overall cost per kilowatt-hour down.
But as the water depth increases, foundation costs increases. So along the U.S. coast, floating structures similar to the ones deep-water oil and gas industry use are nearly the only option.
The U.S. would benefit from not only looking at floating offshore wind but also wave energy, both of which are economically equal in extracting energy from the marine environment.
But what is most important is that these types of projects get in the water soon, generate interest and start working towards lowering costs. We need to work to achieve lower costs through simplicity, reliability and economies of scale.
Today it appears that we are likely only to employ only a tiny fraction of this available resource and offset the needs within the U.S. The problem we truly face is not obtaining the resource; it is the practical deployment and the economical conversion of it into electricity.
We need to look at the most viable methods of capture it at the lowest cost.
Our years of experience in the offshore oil and gas industry will benefit offshore renewable energy companies that are navigating along the U.S. shoreline.
Meet with a PMI Engineering Expert who will help you tackle your offshore project needs.
Want to know more? Read Ocean/Tidal/Stream Power: Wave Power’s Path to Commercial Acceptance – A Comparison with Deepwater Wind by Timothy R. Mundon.
The ocean is a big place. The equipment and tools we build for working in the subsea is pretty big too. And apparently there’s room to continue to grow – because projects like the massive Delta Stream Turbine by Tidal Energy are going to prove how big things are going to get. They built one the world’s first demonstration devices connected to the grid to generate green, renewable and predictable tidal power in an attempt to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions.
It weighs 150 tons, has a 52ft by 66ft frame, and each turbine has a 49ft diameter rotor which is connected to a generator to produce electricity both the ebb and flood tides.
Watch how it works:
Read our thoughts on the wave and tidal industry here.
Read more about Tidal Energy’s project here.
For decades, PMI has been extremely focused on building the best products that withstand the extreme environments of the deep ocean. But as we’ve come to work with Offshore Wind and Renewable Energy companies, we understand our product doesn’t have to be used in the deepest and harshest place on our planet, the sea. Instead, rivers in rural areas are a huge focus of the renewable energy field today. And these companies are offering solutions that serve a large portion of the population, who still have no access to electricity.
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We see a great future in the power coursing through our rivers. And, of course, we will be providing cable equipment for these projects as they evolve. If you want to know more about our custom engineered cable hardware equipment, schedule to talk to our experts today.
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India is facing an energy revolution. Despite broad grid coverage, electricity supply in remote areas remains unreliable. For the future, the government is setting a favorable political scenario by introducing solutions for decentralized electrification based on renewable energies, such as photovoltaic (PV), small wind, and explicitly kinetic hydropower.
Companies such as Smart Hydro Power have the advantage of realizing its systems in rural areas, without the requirement for any kind of infrastructure, suitable for running canals, rivers and streams, which inhabit a large portion of India’s typography. At the distribution part of this system, integrated load management introduces an auxiliary productive load – a water purification plant – that utilizes all excess energy and stabilizes the micro grid with variable operation. Through this feature, additional value is brought to the lifestyle of people residing in these communities. Read more…
The main ambition behind the development of the Smart Hydro Power turbine was cost efficiency. Selected materials had to be robust and yet affordable which resulted in a majority of HDPE, aluminum and stainless steel components. The turbine consists of a three bladed rotor, a 5 kW generator, the floating body consisting of a three piece diffusor and two floats.
Watch how it works here: http://www.smart-hydro.de/en/product/turbine.html
Drawing energy from river currents represents a massive untapped source of electricity development. This is especially true in countries like Canada, where rivers and coastal waters provide an enormous range of development options that can provide growth and economic benefits.
Indeed, Canada is emerging as a leader in the global marine renewable energy industry, thanks to supportive government policies, shared infrastructure and strategic research initiatives. These facts provided the backdrop for last week’s Marine Renewables Canada 2015 Annual Conference, where PMI was among the vendors showcasing products and services in the fast-growing renewables market.
At PMI, we’re already reaching out to companies in the offshore-wind sector, and we’re seeing the potential of freshwater rivers to provide clean, renewable energy.
River energy initiatives provide a new twist on age-old technology: the water wheel. New ventures in this sector are exploring placing turbines — much like you’d see on a jet aircraft — deep in the waters of a river. Water turns the blades, generating kinetic energy that can be converted into electricity.
This creates the potential to fix the one major drawback of hydroelectric projects: massive dams that devastate the local environment. Rivers also can provide power around the clock, unlike solar panels.
Canadian businesses and researchers are unlocking the potential of marine renewable energy through innovations and new approaches to key challenges in the lifecycle of wave, tidal and river projects. Solving problems here definitely opens opportunities in the global market.
PMI is proud to be on the cutting edge of this opportunity, supplying contractors with our proven subsea hardware equipment for river energy exploration. At Marine Renewables Canada 2015, we gobbled up knowledge on topics including:
- Technical acceptability — an international effort to reduce technical risk
- Building scale — an international project pipeline
- Supplying the industry — device development
We see a great future in the power coursing through our rivers. And, of course, we will be providing cable equipment for these projects as they evolve. If you want to know more about our custom engineered cable hardware equipment, schedule to talk to our experts today.
Photo credit: www.pgs.com
Weak oil prices weighed heavily on the folks attending last month’s annual meeting of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Time and again, the people we talked to at 2015 SEG New Orleans were on the prowl for cooperative cost-saving opportunities.
With crude oil prices down more 50 percent from their June 2014 peak, everyone is laser-focused on limiting expenses. Sending fewer people to trade shows must be one way they’re cutting back, because the show had noticeably low attendance.
Those who did get to attend (or who went to the prior Madrid EAGE show) got a look at how PMI is helping offshore industry clients hold the line on costs. Those who missed the show also missed a chance for a hands-on look at our new Hydro-Dynamic DYNA II Sheave Mount and its drag-reducing design.
Our meetings with key seismic exploration customers confirmed how new PMI technology is helping slice operating costs. Today’s 3D seismic operators tow 16-plus streamers along with attached cable management hardware behind oceangoing seismic survey ships. That adds up to a lot of drag, requiring lots of engine power (and fuel for those engines).
At PMI, we’ve learned from working alongside our clients that making our hardware hydrodynamically efficient can significantly reduce the power required to tow streamer & hardware systems — cutting hardware component drag by up to 40 percent. Just multiply the power and fuel savings by 8, 16 or possibly 32 components towed behind a ship and you can see the potential for a significant reduction in costs.
Making small changes like these to our cable hardware gives our clients substantial savings.
If you could not attend either show, download our Free Hydrodynamic Efficiency Report and start thinking about the benefits of our new technology.
Like the Internet of today, telegraph cables were the communication tool that made the Victorian world a little smaller.
Laid along the Atlantic Ocean floor in 1858, running from Ireland to Nova Scotia in Canada, it provided near-instant communication between two halves of the globe.
And it proved powerful when Dr. Hawley Crippen attempted to escape the law following the murder of his wife…
The Dutch Government will soon be inviting offshore wind power companies to bid on building two wind farms off the Dutch coast.
Companies bidding the lowest price will be awarded a 30-year permit to build and operate the relevant wind farm.
So it’s not a surprise to tell you that everyone will be extremely focused on cost control measures.
From our experience, it will be important for those involved to understand how proven subsea cable equipment can reduce the overall cost over time. And throwing the cheapest solution out to grab a bid could be a very costly problem in the future.
While our high-end, custom engineered subsea cable hardware may not be the cheapest on the market, our engineering team understands there are other ways to save costs. Our experience led us to create “No Tools Required” custom cable systems, and our in-depth hydrodynamic efficiency studies are helping other companies innovate new systems on existing subsea cable devices and analyze cost saving opportunities.
According to the Government, critical to the overall plan for The Netherlands is that the energy produced from renewable sources is cost-competitive. In meeting its future energy demand, the country aims to keep costs under control.
For most wind projects, the pre-construction and even pre-bid costs are high for individual companies. Costs must be made for site investigations, for environmental impact assessments, and so on. This increases risks for bidders, and by consequence the overall costs for offshore wind development. To address this, the Dutch government has now decided to take over the responsibility for many of these pre-development issues. Read more…
Offshore wind might be a new industry, but they are as just as focused on cost efficiencies and simplified solutions as our clients in oil and gas. Those who support them need to supply and produce reliable products that increase performance and lower costs.
Our past customers pushed us to innovate and develop “No Tools Required” custom cable systems, and our in-depth hydrodynamic efficiency studies are helping other companies innovate new systems on existing subsea cable devices and analyze cost saving opportunities.
And we are not alone in our efforts. German industrial group Siemens unveiled a new direct-current solution for connecting offshore wind turbines to the grid which can lower costs by as much as 30%. Read more.
