The Crown Estate ‘The UK generates more energy from offshore wind than any other country in the world, powered by almost 1,500 turbines in 27 wind farms. For the first time, it is possible to these turbines at work all at once via a new interactive map created by The Crown Estate, which manages land and sea beds around the UK coastline on behalf of the Queen. The map draws together publicly available data to show how much of the UK’s electricity demand is being met by offshore wind every hour. It reveals that at peak operation the UK’s offshore wind farms can deliver 12 per cent of the UK’s daily electricity demand, and on average meets about five per cent of daily demand on average.

The map is updated every hour throughout the day, using data from the National Grid, wind farm operators and ‘settlement information’ – data gathered every half hour from information on the UK’s electricity market and published five working days later. The map also takes into account local wind speeds and generation forecasts.

Users can zoom into to see the capacity, operator and current output of individual wind farms, and compare current wind speeds across the country.

http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/energy-and-infrastructure/offshore-wind-energy/offshore-wind-electricity-map/how-does-the-map-work 

Guidance released for the tidal energy industry on turbulence in the marine environment

The TiME project consortium (consisting of partners Partrac, Ocean Array Systems, ABPmer, and IT Power) has announced today that the Guidance formulated from the TiME (Turbulence in Marine Environment) project has now been released. The project, funded by the Scottish Government and managed by the Carbon Trust through the Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) Array Technology Innovation Programme, was developed to improve the understanding of the effect of marine turbulence on tidal arrays in Scottish waters. Turbulence was measured by Partrac in the challenging tidal environments of both the Sound of Islay and the Inner Sound, Pentland Firth, using novel methods and technologies so that each can be evaluated, and turbulence could be mapped across differing tidal energy development sites. ABPmer then incorporated the data in resource characterisation, Ocean Array Systems (OAS) has provided turbulence characterisation and hydrodynamic analyses, and IT Power has contributed their knowledge of engineering design, device performance and tidal turbine array modelling. The project team used this wealth of information and research to develop Turbulence Guidance through extensive engagement with the tidal energy industry. The principle outcomes of the project are: New methods have been developed and tested to measure and characterise turbulence. Data from these new methods were then used to show that designing tidal turbines and array layouts to the true turbulence existing at different points in a site could lead to significant cost reductions.  Full details are in the Guidance documents, which can be obtained at www.oceanarraysystems.com/library. The guidance will also be submitted to the wave and tidal knowledge network, a platform hosted by the ORE Catapult.