Contents
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1
The UK has more offshore wind turbines than the whole of the rest of Europe (Figure1). Confidence in the future remains strong and, with more than 1.5GW under construction and almost 5GW in the pipeline with confirmed government support, offshore wind power remains on course to meet around 10% of the
UK’s electricity demand by 2020.
Last year the UK installed 813MW of new offshore wind farm capacity, accounting for more than half of all new installations across Europe,
European Wind Energy Association figures show.
Also, activity during 2014 has confirmed there is a growing appetite for mergers and acquisitions among both generation and offshore transmission assets, with investment in the sector now coming in from around the world including the Middle East,
Japan and Canada. Continuing investor interest is underpinned by Bloomberg
New Energy Finance analysis showing the UK provides the most stable regulatory regime in the North Sea countries investing in offshore wind, ahead of Germany and Denmark. report published by ORE Catapult in
February 2015 has already confirmed that the UK offshore wind industry is on a path to reduce the levelised cost of offshore wind energy to below
£100 per MWh for projects reaching final investment decision (FID) by
2020. By then we estimate over
10GW of capacity will be installed, continuing to create high value jobs and support the UK’s transition to a secure and low carbon energy mix.
The offshore wind sector and its’ suppliers is determined to drive down costs and greater industry collaboration, like the SPARTA system
(p.16), will be essential to this. The
Cost Reduction Monitoring Framework
Huub den Rooijen
Head of Offshore Wind,
The Crown Estate
1500
1400
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
*Count includes both under construction and operational turbines
2
2001
147
172
316 334
574
1044
794
1450
1233
2 32
2002 2003
62 92
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 www.thecrownestate.co.uk/energy-and-infrastructure 3

+15%
47.8%
14%
4 Offshore Wind Operational Report 2015

2
The growing importance of offshore wind to the UK’s energy mix should not be underestimated. The 4GW milestone of installed capacity was passed last year and, at the end of 2014, there was 4,494MW either in construction or operational across
24 projects on Crown Estate managed seabed (Figure 2). This operational capacity resulted in 4% of the UK’s electricity requirements being met by offshore wind over the course of the year.
Britain’s offshore wind fleet performed better than ever before, generating a record 13.4 terawatt hours (TWh), sufficient to meet the needs of almost
3.2 million homes. This was an 18% increase over 2013.
well below, the long term average.
December 2014 broke the record for the most electricity generated by offshore wind in one month which, at 1.89TWh, was 25 % higher than the previous record set just one year earlier in December 2013.
Whilst the pipeline for new projects remains strong, there will be a dip in new operational capacity completions through to 2017. Nevertheless, overall output will continue to grow steadily as sites in construction complete and move to stable operation. With a fair wind, 2015 generation growth may well eclipse 2014’s 18% increase on the year before.
These successes came despite wind speeds proving highly variable during the course of the year with some months well above, and others
This report by The Crown Estate, provides a ready source of easily digested information about an industry which has fast become one of the
UK’s industrial successes of the new millennium.
Cumulative share by country (MW) n   n
4,494.4 55.90%
712.0
8.80% n   1,271.0 15.80% n   26.0 0.30% n   1,049.0 13.00% n   25.0
0.30% n   247.0
3.10% n n
2.0
0.02%
2.0
0.02% n n
5.0
0.10%
212.0
2.60% www.thecrownestate.co.uk/energy-and-infrastructure 5

3
There are now 25 fully operational offshore wind projects in the UK
(Figures 3 and 4) with another
6 ‘under construction’; 3 of these are almost complete. In addition, another 10 projects with an aggregate capacity of more than 5GW have either a stated delivery timescale which is consistent with Renewable
Obligation eligibility or a Contract for Difference (CfD) has been secured.
At an average of over 500MW, these projects are generally larger and further from shore than previously with an expected resultant increase in turbine size and load factor.
Operational: Total capacity of wind farms that have been fully commissioned.
No. Project name
01 Barrow
Capacity MW
90
02 Blyth
03 Burbo Bank
04 Greater Gabbard
05 Gunfleet Sands Demonstration
06 Gunfleet Sands I
07 Gunfleet Sands II
08 Inner Dowsing
4
90
504
12
108
65
97
09 Kentish Flats
10 Lincs
11
12
London Array
Lynn
90
270
630
97
13 Methil Demonstration – Samsung 7
14 North Hoyle
15 Ormonde
16 Rhyl Flats
17 Robin Rigg East
18 Robin Rigg West
19 Scroby Sands
60
150
90
90
90
60
20 Sheringham Shoal
21 Teesside
22 Thanet
23 Walney (Phase 1)
24 Walney (Phase 2)
25 West of Duddon Sands
Total
317
62
300
184
184
389
4,039
Under construction: Total capacity of wind farms that are under construction or where the developer has confirmed a final investment decision, but are not yet fully operational.
No. Project name
26 Burbo Bank Extension
Capacity MW
258
27 Dudgeon
28 Gwynt y Môr
29 Humber Gateway
402
576
219
50 30 Kentish Flats Extension
31 Westermost Rough
Total
210
1,715
Government support on offer: Total capacity of wind farms that have secured a Contract for Difference or whose publicly stated timescales are consistent with accessing the Renewables Obligation (RO).
No. Project name
32 Beatrice
33 Blyth Demonstration
34 East Anglia ONE
35 Galloper 1
36 Heron Wind (Hornsea)
Up to capacity
MW
664
99
714
340
600
37 Neart na Gaoithe (NNG)
38 Njord (Hornsea)
39 Race Bank 1
40 Rampion 1 (Southern Array)
41 Walney Extension
Total
448
600
580
400
660
5,105
1 RO feasible based on published grid connection dates as per TEC register – Mar 2015
NOTE: Quoted capacity refers to the property rights held with The Crown Estate and does not necessarily reflect the build out capacity permissible under current or future statutory planning permissions.
Offshore wind accounted for 4.0% of UK electricity generated in 2014
(Figure 5). All wind reached 9% of
UK electricity generation in 2014, a year when the total of all forms of renewable energy generation (22%) exceeded nuclear output (19%) for the first time (Figure 6).
6%
5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
2009 2010 2011 2012
Year
2013 2014 2015
6 Offshore Wind Operational Report 2015

Territorial Waters Limit
UK Continental Shelf
United Kingdom
Rest of Europe
32
13
37
18 17
41
24
28
16
15
14
23
25
01
03
26
02
33
21
31
29
36
38
08
12 10 39 20
27
19
07
06
05
30
09
04
11 22
40
35
34
TWh % n   101.1
30% n   n
97.4
63.8
n   22.9
n    18.3
29%
19%
7%
5% n    n    oil, other
13.4
8.4
4%
3% n   n   n
TWh
5.9
3.9
0.0
%
2%
1%
0%
SOURCE: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/415997/ electricity.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/415998/ renewables.pdf
www.thecrownestate.co.uk/energy-and-infrastructure 7

4
At the end of December 2014, the UK seabed had 1,309 operational offshore wind turbines, 21 offshore substations and 47 export cables transmitting power back to shore (Figure 7).
At the beginning of this year there were another 223 turbines under construction, accounting for a further
960MW of capacity, and another 5GW with government support in place.
DONG Energy currently has the largest share of operational project capacity, followed by Vattenfall and E.ON.
The growth in installed capacity over the past 10 years has resulted in an average increase in annual production of over 50% per annum between 2005 and 2014 (Figure 8).
The industry is expected to continue to grow strongly, with a 20% increase expected in 2015.
31 March 2015
Offshore turbines
Operating:
Under construction:
Total:
Offshore substations
Onshore substations
Export cables
Operating:
Under construction:
Total:
Operating:
Under construction:
Total:
Operating:
Under construction:
Total:
Offshore masts
Operating:
Under construction:
Total:
1,333
199
1,532
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Year
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
26
1
27
21
4
25
47
11
58
16
5
21
8 Offshore Wind Operational Report 2015

Across the UK, wind speeds varied significantly from the norm with
February 2014 recording windiness
50% above the long term average and
September 49% below the average
(Figure 9). Over the year as a whole, however, windiness was in line with the long term average.
Despite the high degree of variability in windiness, National Grid was able to balance supply and demand.
National Grid asks generators of all kinds – not just wind farms – to come on or off the grid to avoid bottlenecks in the network and smooth out the supply.
It can include buying generation onto or off the network one or two days ahead of real time, and bids on the balancing mechanism within one or two hours of when the energy is needed.
30
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
60
50
40
11%
Jan
50%
Feb
-4%
Mar
-10%
-16%
Apr May
-37%
Jun
-10%
25%
Overall:
Overall YTD:
9%
-15%
Jul Aug
-49%
Sep Oct Nov
+0%
+0%
16%
Dec
SOURCE: http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Our-company/Electricity/Balancing-the-network/
This is something that National Grid has done for years, many times each day; this practice is becoming more important as more renewable energy plants come online.
National Grid’s demand forecasting team also plans ahead to ensure there is enough back-up power available to cover any potential shortfall in supply.
For generators, asset reliability involves maximising the energy yield of projects whilst optimising energy generation costs. For transmission owners, asset reliability is pre-requisite to maintaining a licence to operate. Availability of a system is typically measured as a factor of its reliability – as reliability increases, so does availability. As reliability and availability increases, so too does performance (see next section).
Successful high reliability and availability asset operation requires a full range of technical, environmental, project and financial management skills and knowledge to be integrated within a safe and healthy operational environment.
www.thecrownestate.co.uk/energy-and-infrastructure 9

100
99
98
97
96
95
94 availability as reported for the availability incentive (red column, accounting for outages excluded from the availability incentive and those deemed as exceptional events).
n   n
The offshore regulatory regime, developed by DECC and Ofgem, was launched in 2009 and uses competitive tendering for licensing offshore electricity transmission.
Offshore transmission owners (OFTO) are awarded a licence to operate and maintain the transmission assets in return for a regulated revenue stream.
The licence includes a requirement to maintain annual system availability at
98% or above.
1
Failure to operate at the required availability level will result in loss of revenue to the OFTO. This report provides an overview of offshore transmission system availability performance for Robin Rigg, Gunfleet
Sands, Barrow, Ormonde, Walney I,
Walney II, Sheringham Shoal, London
Array and Greater Gabbard from 01
January 2014 to 31 December
2014 (Lincs & Thanet have not been included in this report as their licences were not granted until the end of 2014).
Although OFTOs have to report all outages, only certain outages impact on an OFTO’s availability. In general these fall into two groups: “exclusions”, which are automatically exempt from the availability incentive, and
“exceptional events” which are allowed at Ofgem’s discretion.
Health and safety is an integral and fundamental part of business performance, particularly when much of the day-to-day activity is conducted year round in the offshore environment.
After accounting for exceptional events and exclusions, all reported annual system availability was above 98%, and 2014 performance bonuses have therefore been earned
(Figure 10).
The graph above presents availability for each project from 01 January 2014 to 31 December 2014. It includes
OFTOs actual availability (blue column, accounting for all outages) and
Business performance involves the management of resources and operations in order to generate a return on investment. An improvement in asset performance
(e.g. production = wind speed x capacity x availability) in an offshore wind context will be strongly influenced by increased asset availability during high wind periods and improved reliability.
In 2014, the UK fully connected four new wind farms to the grid, consisting of 219 turbines and delivering a generation capacity of 813.4MW.
This means that the UK now hosts
55.9 % of all installed offshore wind capacity in Europe.
Walney 2 once again broke the record for offshore wind farm performance last year, beating its 2013 record of
47% to give a load factor of 48.7%.
1 OFTO availability is measured over a calendar year (an ‘incentive period’). The availability over this period is applied to the revenue in the following financial year
(a ‘relevant year’). SOURCE: NG NETS Performance Report 2014
10 Offshore Wind Operational Report 2015

959 reported incidents
0 fatalities
44 total lost work days
6 injuries to employees and contractors reported under RIDDOR
651 incidents occurred on operational sites
289 incidents occurred on project sites
15 incidents occurred on survey sites
2014 incident severity summary
228 incidents during marine operations*
140 lifting operations incidents
134 incidents occurred when operating plant and machinery
369 incidents occurred in the turbine region
315 incidents occurred onshore
243 incidents occurred on vessels n   97 n   655 n   95 n   54 n   14 n   44
* Marine operations comprise the following work processes: maritime operations, transfer by vessel, vessel operations, vessel mobilisation. Source: http://www.actuenvironnement.com/media/pdf/news-24426rapport-risques-eolien-offshore.pdf
Taking into account only those sites fully operational for the whole of 2014, five of the more recently completed sites exceeded the
40% load factor threshold, collectively generating over 6TWh of electricity.
Whilst the sites’ accounted for just
45% of the year’s fully operational capacity, their output amounted to over 50% of the year’s output from all sites, a clear indication that technological improvements across the industry are boosting performance.
The average load factor – % output delivered vs theoretical maximum – in the UK’s offshore wind portfolio in 2014 was 38%, narrowly beating the previous
37.7% record set in 2013.
In February 2014 an average load factor of 66% was recorded for the sector, some 20% higher than the previous high of 55% set just two months earlier in December 2013.
the actual number of reported injuries increased by 3%.
The health and safety of all employees is top priority throughout the offshore wind farm lifecycle, most particularly during the construction and operation and maintenance phases.
This data is being used as a benchmark for the industry to improve upon in order to make offshore wind farms a safer place to operate.
Nine of the world’s largest renewable energy developers – RWE Innogy,
DONG Energy, Statkraft, E.ON
Renewables, Centrica Renewable
Energy, ScottishPower Renewables,
SSE Renewables, Vattenfall and Statoil
– were founder members of the G9
Offshore Wind Health and Safety
Association in 2010. G9 aims to deliver world-class safety performance across the industry.
The group’s second annual report, published in April 2015, showed the sectors overall Lost Time Injury
Frequency rate fell by 34% in 2014 compared to the previous year although during the same period
In 2014, there were a total of 959 reported incidents, of which 655 were near hits and 97 reported hazards.
The balance was made up of 44 lost work days, 14 restricted work days,
54 injuries requiring medical treatment and 95 receiving first aid (Figure 11).
“Within the G9 there is a commitment to be open, honest and transparent concerning our HSE performance and this report is a valuable resource which helps us identify and respond to emerging HSE risks, and continuously improve the safety performance of our industry,” said Benj Sykes, chairman of the G9 board of directors, and head of asset management at DONG
Energy Wind Power.
www.thecrownestate.co.uk/energy-and-infrastructure 11

Undersea cable repairs are often subjected to delay due to a number of factors, including vessel mobilisation, availability of suitably trained personnel and availability of spare parts. Cable outages result in lost revenue to the associated offshore generator, and repair costs for the offshore transmission owner (OFTO).
4,000
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
TC Ormonde OFTO Ltd has been awarded project funding following application to Ofgem’s Electricity
Network Innovation Competition
(NIC). If successful, the project will result in improved availability of connections between offshore wind farms and their onshore connection point by reducing cable repair times and associated costs.
The project involves:
1 Conversion of an existing telecoms vessel to provide power cable repair capability;
2 The vessel being available to all
OFTOs (and other parties) through the Atlantic Cable Maintenance
& Repair Agreement (ACMA) on standard terms;
3 Developing, manufacturing and testing a universal cable joint; and
4 Training staff in cable repair and jointing best practice.
The project is estimated to deliver significant annual cost savings from
2018 (when the converted vessel will be ready for service) as a result of increased output and reduced repair costs.
Global Marine Systems Ltd (GMSL), the owner of a fleet of cable ships including the vessel proposed for modification, has been selected as the prime subcontractor for this work. Other subcontractors, including the jointing subcontractor, will be selected through a tendering process.
The total project cost is forecast to be £10.3m with NIC funding accounting for £9m of this, and is programmed to run from January
2015 to July 2018.
First power date
Ten UK offshore wind farms accounted for approximately three quarters of all offshore generation in 2014. Of these, eight were completed during the last five years and two were not fully complete at year end. These ten wind farms will therefore account for an even higher proportion of overall generation in 2015. The remaining seventeen wind farms, accounting for
25% of operating capacity, generated the balance of 25%.
n   n   n
2.24
1.78
1.09
n   n   n   n
0.90
0.86
0.78
0.77
n   n   n   n
1. Calendar year 2014
2. Not all projects fully operational during calendar year
0.68
0.54
0.53
3.25
12 Offshore Wind Operational Report 2015

There has been an improvement in the design and productivity of offshore wind turbines over the last 10 years.
One of the factors leading to these improvements has been an increase in rotor diameter, not just in absolute terms but also relative to the turbines’ rated capacity.
Figure 13 shows the increase in rotor area per MW for UK wind farms over time which is one of the reasons for the trend in improved load factors discussed in the next section.
39
37
35
33
31
29
27
25
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Year
Load factor
UK offshore wind index
108
106
104
102
100
98
96
94
92
90 www.thecrownestate.co.uk/energy-and-infrastructure 13

5
There is growing market evidence that debt finance is available for offshore wind projects with sufficient capacity in the debt markets to meet the anticipated demand over the next five years. This is supported by transaction activity – around £1.6bn of debt has been invested in five
UK offshore wind farms in 2014, over one-and-a-half times the £1bn invested in 2013.
In 2014, UK Green Investment plc (GIB) launched the world’s first dedicated offshore wind fund in which it aims to raise £1bn to invest in operational offshore wind farms in the UK.
On 1 April 2015, UK Green
Investment Bank Financial Services
Limited (GIBFS) reached first close on commitments of £463m from
UK-based pension funds, a major sovereign wealth fund and UK Green
Investment plc (GIB) itself.
GIB has now transferred its investments in two operating assets into the fund, which will produce an immediate cash yield for investors.
They are:
• Rhyl Flats: a 90 MW, 25 turbine wind farm operated by RWE
Innogy UK off the coast of North
Wales. It has been operational since
December 2009. GIB has sold its full 24.95% equity stake in the project to the Fund.
• Sheringham Shoal: a 317 MW,
88 turbine wind farm operated by
Statkraft and located in the Greater
Wash area off the coast of Norfolk.
It has been operational since
October 2012. GIB has sold its full 20% equity stake in the project to the fund.
Shaun Kingsbury, chief executive of UK Green Investment plc (GIB) announced: “Attracting additional capital and creating a liquid market for operating assets is an important step in reducing the cost of offshore wind and supporting the continued growth of the sector. New investors will allow the original developers to sell down their stakes and use the proceeds to finance new renewable energy projects.”
Wider equity investment activity in the
UK sector during 2014 is summarised in Figure 16.
Site name
Generation assets
Barrow
Gwynt-y-Môr
London Array
Sheringham Shoal
Westermost Rough
Capacity Owner(s)
90
576
630
317
210
DONG 50%; Centrica 50%
RWE 60%; Siemens 10%;
Stadwerke Munchen 30%
50% DONG; 30% E.ON;
20% Masdar
Statoil 50%; Statkraft 50%
DONG 100%
New investor
Sale of Centrica share to DONG
UK Green Investment plc (GIB)
Sale of 25% of DONG share to La Caisse
Sale of 20% share to GIB
GIB; Marubeni Corp
Transmission assets
Lincs
Thanet
270
300
Centrica 50%; DONG 25%;
Siemens 25%
Vattenfall 100%
TC Lincs OFTO Ltd
Thanet OFTO Ltd
Stake
50%
10%
25%
20%
50%
Value
£50m
£220m
£644m
£240m c.£500m
–
–
£307.7m
£164m
14 Offshore Wind Operational Report 2015

6
The UK offshore wind sector offers favourable returns in a stable, regulated environment, presenting an attractive investment opportunity
(Figure 17). Favourable conditions already attracting both UK and overseas investment include:
Project name
Demonstration sites
Blyth Demo
Gunfleet Sands Demo
Methil Demo
Investor(s)
100% E.ON
100% DONG
100% Samsung
•
• Largely, inflation-linked revenue streams, backed by UK Government legislation
•
Long-dated assets with 25 year asset lives and up to 20 years of contracted revenues
Over a decade of commercial deployment and the largest installed capacity of offshore wind in the world.
Commercial sites
Barrow
Burbo Bank
Greater Gabbard
Gunfleet Sands I
Gunfleet Sands II
Gwynt y Môr
Humber Gateway
Inner Dowsing
Kentish Flats 1
Lincs
London Array 1
Lynn
North Hoyle
Ormonde
Rhyl Flats
100% DONG
100% DONG
50% SSE; 50% RWE
50.1% DONG; 24.95% Marubeni Corporation; 24.95%
Development Bank of Japan
50.1% DONG; 24.95% Marubeni Corporation; 24.95%
Development Bank of Japan
60% RWE; 10% Siemens; 30% Stadwerke Munchen;
100% E.ON
50% Centrica; 50% EIG Partners
100% Vattenfall
50% Centrica; 25% DONG; 25% Siemens
30% E.ON; 25% DONG; 25% La Caisse; 20% Masdar
50% Centrica; 50% EIG Partners
33.3% RWE; 33.3% JP Morgan IIF; 33.3% Prudential M&G
100% Vattenfall
50.1% RWE; 24.95% Greencoat; 24.95% Green Investment
Bank
Robin Rigg East
Robin Rigg West
Scroby Sands
Sheringham Shoal
100% E.ON
100% E.ON
100% E.ON
40% Statkraft; 40% Statoil; 20% Green Investment Bank
Teesside
Thanet
100% EDF
100% Vattenfall
Walney 1
Walney 2
50.1% DONG; 25.1% SSE; 24.8% PGGM & Dutch Ampère
Equity Fund
50.1% DONG; 25.1% SSE; 24.8% PGGM & Dutch Ampère
Equity Fund
West of Duddon Sands 50% DONG; 50% Scottish Power
Westermost Rough 50% DONG; 25% Marubeni Corporation; 25% Green
Investment Bank
Until 2006, Vestas manufactured and supplied all of the offshore turbines installed in the UK. Since then Siemens Wind Power has entered the market and increased its share in the installed capacity offshore to the extent that it is now the largest supplier of offshore turbines (Figure
18). The only other current supplier of commercially operating offshore turbines in the UK is Senvion.
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0 n   n   n
Year www.thecrownestate.co.uk/energy-and-infrastructure 15

7
Equipment failures cost the UK offshore wind industry around £150m in 2012, so even a small decrease in the frequency of failure could generate massive savings, cutting the cost of power generation (Figure 16).
SPARTA (System Performance,
Availability and Reliability Trend
Analysis), allows offshore wind farm owner operators to anonymously share data on a wide range of operational issues, such as system downtime, repair interventions, crew transfers and weather conditions.
SPARTA produces monthly reports on this data so that over time it will reveal long term trends to help the industry identify measures to boost availability, reliability and performance. An example of the type of output generated for the participants is shown in the availability graph (Figure 17).
The Crown Estate has estimated that a 1% industry-wide improvement in availability arising as a consequence of
SPARTA against the 2014 offshore wind-generated volume of 13.4TWh, could meet the energy requirements of an additional 31,000 homes.
SPARTA, which began pilot operation in 2014, is now moving to long term operation. The participants are Centrica
Renewable Energy, RWE Innogy, SSE,
Statkraft, Statoil, ScottishPower
Renewables, EDF Energy Renewables,
Vattenfall, DONG Energy and E.ON
Renewables, representing the whole of the UK’s installed capacity.
The project’s development cost has been met by ORE Catapult and The
Crown Estate with in-kind support from DNV-GL.
The project is open to eligible projects from outside the UK provided anonymous reporting can be maintained.
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Mean wind farm availability (%)*
* The wind farm availability calculation includes Generating (IAOG) and Out of Environmental
Specification (IAONGEN) according to IEC 614-26-1 standard information model. All other states are not included in this availability figure.
Data includes 11 wind farms representing over 50% of installed capacity of UK offshore wind farms.
Aggregated data is shown from the pilot year with not all UK offshore wind farms yet represented.
With SPARTA now entering full operation, more capacity will be added with the goal being to include all UK offshore capacity.
During the SPARTA pilot year a significant reduction in the variation in availability has been observed across the sector. This is likely to be due to a number of wind farms experiencing higher than average outages earlier in the year.
Early indications suggest that there is room for improvement in mean wind farm availability.
16 Offshore Wind Operational Report 2015

The Marine Data Exchange (MDE), developed and operated by The
Crown Estate, provides free access to geotechnical, geophysical and environmental survey data gathered during the planning, building and operation of offshore renewable energy projects.
As lessor of seabed rights, The
Crown Estate is de facto trustee for this data. Following review and cataloguing, non-confidential data is posted onto the MDE to help reduce future development costs and promote research and innovation within the offshore renewable energy and other sectors.
In the past year access has been provided to ‘cleaned’ wind data from various meteorological masts,
LiDAR systems and buoys around the UK. Cleaning the data removes anomalies and makes it more readily usable to those interested in using it for analysis and other purposes.
The Marine Data Exchange website currently holds 1,864 series of data which, it is estimated, will have cost the industry more than £500m to collect during the development, construction and operational phases.
More than half of those series are freely available; those remaining will be published over the coming years as confidentiality agreements come to an end. On average, 188 datasets or reports are downloaded from the MDE each month to 257 unique domains such as universities, public bodies,
NGOs, offshore project developers and other commercial organisations.
Evidence that the offshore wind operations and maintenance sector is maturing is being actively demonstrated through the clear commitment to joint industry projects
(JIP) and other initiatives such as
SLIC (structural lifecycle industry collaboration) and SPARTA (system performance availability, reliability and performance trend analysis).
Examples of other, less well known, collaboration opportunity or practice are referenced below.
http://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk
Jack-up vessel optimisation
Improving offshore wind performance through better use of jack-up vessels in the operations and maintenance phase
The Crown Estate published a report in 2014 showing how the UK offshore wind industry could save between
£52m and £110m each year by collaborating on the deployment of jack up vessels for operations and maintenance.
Jack-up vessel deployment and mobilisation costs can form a substantial proportion of repair bills and can make fast repairs of single turbines challenging to justify in isolation.
The report showed how three site owners on the east coast saved an estimated £0.5m each by sharing a single self-propelled dynamically positioned jack-up vessel for component replacements on 10
Siemens 3.6MW turbines at three different wind farms.
The top 10 downloaded datasets are:
1 Thanet met mast data
2 Shell Flats met mast data
3 Gunfleet Sands II wind data
4 Greater Gabbard – Noordhoek wind and wave data
5 Greater Gabbard – Wave and wind correlation data
6 London Array met mast data
7 Gwynt Y Môr met mast data for 2005 to 2008, cleaned and validated
8 Shell Flats met mast data 2011 to 2012
9 Atlantic Array environmental statement
10 Gwynt y Môr met mast data 2005 to 2008
The report makes a number of recommendations to facilitate increased efficiency and collaboration in the use of jack-up vessels, including to explore options for the establishment of a flexible vessel user group. http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/ media/451536/ei-km-in-omconstruction-072014-jack-up- vessel-optimisation.pdf
www.thecrownestate.co.uk/energy-and-infrastructure 17

The offshore wind industry is being encouraged to proactively collaborate with aviation stakeholders to resolve aviation related issues.
So far, the key issue has been the unwanted detection of wind farms by radar, requiring innovative solutions to overcome. However, as deeper water wind farm projects move through consenting into construction and operation, more issues are beginning to emerge. These are typically related to regulation, policy, operating constraints, access and health and safety.
The publication “A Guide to UK
Offshore Wind Operations and
Maintenance (Scottish Enterprise and The Crown Estate, 2013)” , flagged the need to plan and prepare for the use of both crew transfer vessels and helicopters for personnel transfers to and from site. It is important that this operational change, and barriers to implementation, be considered now in order to avoid delay and risk increased cost later.
The Crown Estate, in collaboration with Renewable UK, established The
Offshore Aviation Operations Group
(OAOG) in 2013, an industry forum focusing on operational aviation matters. The forum has brought together stakeholders, developers, helicopter operators and the oil and gas industry. Initial successes include bridging the gap between offshore renewables and the oil and gas industry with particular value derived from the sectors’ long established offshore helicopter operations and lessons learned.
The initial work of the OAOG has been promoted at a number of events to raise awareness and develop strategic thinking in relation to offshore operations. This will continue as new challenges arise, strategies evolve and issues are overcome.
Looking ahead, the planned development of a set of offshore aviation guidelines will provide reference material for offshore wind developers, stakeholders and helicopter operators to devise access strategies, assess training requirements and plan for emergency operations.
Fostering early and positive communications will help facilitate a collaborative approach to developing aviation related regulations, policies and guidance. And, through a greater awareness and understanding of the issues, potential direct benefits are expected to include enhanced operational efficiency, increased effectiveness and safety of services, and reduced risk and cost to industry.
18 Offshore Wind Operational Report 2015

8
1MWh
2
9.5
4.9m
According to RenewableUK, every
1MWh of renewable electricity generated avoids 0.86 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Using this figure, it is estimated that over 11.5 million tonnes of CO
2
was avoided through the generation of low carbon energy from the UK offshore wind portfolio in 2014. energy as it will consume over its lifetime (including manufacture and decommissioning).
A report by Cambridge Econometrics for RenewableUK this year shows how much the UK relies on wind power to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel imports.
Research published by Siemens
Wind Power in 2014, showed that an offshore wind farm has an energy payback time of less than a year.
The report estimated that in 2013, all wind generated electricity reduced
Britain’s need to import coal by 4.9 million tonnes, or natural gas by 1.4 billion cubic meters, and concluded that UK fossil fuel imports in excess of £579m were avoided as a result.
Siemens carried out a lifecycle analysis of an offshore wind farm deploying its 6.0MW turbine and found that a project would need to operate for less than 9.5 months to produce as much http://www.camecon.com/Libraries/
Downloadable_Files/The_impact_ of_wind_energy_on_UK_energy_ dependence_and_resilience.sflb.ashx www.thecrownestate.co.uk/energy-and-infrastructure 19

London
The Crown Estate
16 New Burlington Place
London
W1S 2HX
T 020 7851 5000
Edinburgh
The Crown Estate
6 Bell’s Brae
Edinburgh
EH4 2BJ
T 0131 260 6070 www.thecrownestate.co.uk
/energy-and-infrastructure
@TheCrownEstate
Correct as of April 2015.