Offshore wind energy. Technical aspects and feasibility study of offshore on Spanish coasts

Abstract

Wind energy is derived from the differential heating of the atmosphere by the sun, and irregularities on the earth’s surface. Although only a small fraction of solar energy reaching the earth turns into kinetic wind energy, the total amount is extremely huge. Therefore, this energy resource should be exploited. What we have tried to proof in this thesis is that if wind farms were built in Spain, it could prevent a large amount of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere and that is an economically viable solution for electricity production. To reach this conclusion this thesis has been divided into two blocks. The first one, more theoretical, studies in depth wind energy and offshore technology. It describes both the components of a wind turbine as the impacts and potential problems that offshore technology may have. The second block, analyses three possible wind farms in three areas of Spain with a high wind resource potential. To this purpose, it has been chosen different types of wind turbines with different powers in order to analyse the power generated by each wind farms, the distribution of costs and the economic viability.