The Technology
Wind turbines have increased their capacity by a factor of ten over the past two decades. The offshore turbines operated by Airtricity in the Irish Sea have a capacity of 3.6MW. With advances in technology the individual turbines to be used in the 10GW Foundation Project will have a capacity of 5MW each. The use of voltage source converter HVDC technology to transport energy from large new wind banks offshore creates the backbone of a new Supergrid located in the seas and oceans around the EU that is used to transform offshore wind energy into electricity. The Supergrid, stretching across a maritime electricity highway from the Baltic Sea to the Bay of Biscay and on to the Mediterranean, will be made up of high voltage AC and DC sub-sea and land cables, onshore and offshore voltage source HVDC technology converter stations and other essential transmission equipment. A meshed system will be necessary to allow trading between national markets. Older generation DC cannot operate in a meshed configuration but newer voltage source converter HVDC has overcome this limitation and will be used in the Supergrid. The HVDC is scalable from 500MW to 1,000MW offering 100% more capacity at 25-33% more cost. |
‘ABB – Power and productivity for a better world
We have today established an advanced transmission technology, HVDC Light, for demanding offshore applications to feed electricity to platforms but also to connect and support integration of electrical networks. We have worked very closely with Airtricity on the technology aspects of their concept for an EU Supergrid Project and have concluded that this European technology fits well with their plans to construct an offshore grid.’
Bo Normark, Senior Vice President Marketing and Sales, ABB Grid Systems
