Energy from offshore wind parks can and should afford an important contribute to the future politics of energy and climate of the Federal Republic. To reach this without long time subsidies, the cost of production have to be reduced and the energy offer has to be equalized.

In preparation for the integrated project of the CUT, task force wind, "base load power from the North Sea", the institute performed first preliminary investigations in group projects end of 2005, beginning of 2006. Based on state-of-the-art knowledge, concepts for a shared development of North Sea wind energy and low caloriferic gas (without the integration of caverns) were developed and rated, open questions were identified and further need of technology concretised.

The Clausthal concept aims for a reliabe and sustainable power supply from the North Sea at economical acceptable conditions. The combined development of wind power with gas and cavern storages is to improve wind power by:

• secure the gas turbines power generation from gas and/or
• equalize the absorption of surplus power in times of strong wind at simultaneous low load from compressed air gas turbine power plants and the delayed generation for high demands
• improve the efficiency of the developed infrastructure (platforms and power line connection)
• improve the collective operation of offshore units in its efficiency.

Clausthal Concept: base load power from the North Sea

Background

The target of Federal Government is to install 25.000MW wind power an main see until 2025/2030. To reach this without long time subsidies, the production costs have to be reduced an the energy offer has to be equalized.

Wind power from offshore wind parks is affiliated with high production costs. This originates from high investments for wind plants and power line connection. A big drawback are the fluctuations in energy offer, that demand assurance.

Exploration activities in the german part of the North Sea led to a serie of gas discoveries. Development concepts based on the economical and technical basic conditions of the past decades proved as predominantly inefficient. Cause was the high percentage of nitrogen in the gas. The marketing of those gases would demand a removal of nitrogen or the blending with high caloric gases. The economic usage of the shallow gas sources failed because of the dimension and the expected production problems.

Preliminary investigations

In preliminary investigations based on state-of-the-art knowledge, concepts for a combined development of North See wind power and nitrogenous gas deposits were developed and rated, open issues identified and further technological requirements concretised. This led to the following conclusions:

• an electrification of nitrogeneous gas is approved up to an nitrogen concentration of ~ 90%,
• gas turbines are successfully in service for several years for nitrogen concentrations up to 70%,
• the profitability of a development of gas sources together with wind parks up to a wind full load of 3.500 h/a is comparable to a development of gas sources on its own,
• the profitability of a development of wind parks together with gas sources is better than a development of wind parks on its own,
• the combined development is reasonable for larger performances of 200 MW and more.

Further need of R&D

The economical realisation of the Clausthal concept needs a confirmation of in preliminary investigations met assumptions as well as a further development of the concept, especially by the inclusion of caverns. For the accomplishment of the needed research and development works the CUT Institutes founded the "task force wind". Their members are:

• Institute of Conditioning and Waste Engineering
• Institute of Petroleum Engineering
• Institute of Electrical Power Engineering
• Institute for Energy Process Engineering and Fuel Technology
• Institute for Mechanical Engineering
• Institute of Economic Science

The task force is supported by the Institute of Power Systems and Power Economics of the RWTH Aachen under the adminstration of Prof. Haubrich (Usage of plant and power line simulator) as well as the engineering company DEEP Underground Engineering GmbH, Bad Zwischenahn.

Financial Aid for the project is granted by:

• Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conversation and Nuclear Safety
• Energieversorgung Weser-Ems AG (EWE)

Further industry cooperation is intended.

Here a list of previous group projects final reports.

Joint development between offshore windpark and low calorific gas to produce base load power

Contact

Prof. Dr. Kurt M. Reinicke

phone:
+49-5323-72-2240
fax:
+49-5323-72-3146
E-Mail:
kurt.m.reinicke@tu-clausthal.de

Office:

Mrs. Marion Bischof

phone:
+49-5323-72-2239
fax:
+49-5323-72-3146
E-Mail:
marion.bischof@tu-clausthal.de