Offshore wind energy potential in China: Under technical, spatial and economic constraints

Abstract

This paper investigates available offshore wind energy resources in China's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) with the aid of a Geographical Information System (GIS), which allows the influence of technical, spatial and economic constraints on offshore wind resources being reflected in a continuous space. Geospatial supply curves and spatial distribution of levelised production cost (LPC) are developed, which provide information on the available potential of offshore wind energy at or below a given cost, and its corresponding geographical locations. The GIS-based models also reflect the impacts of each spatial constraint as well as various scenarios of spatial constraints on marginal production costs of offshore wind energy. Furthermore, the impacts of differing Feed-in-tariff (FIT) standards on the economic potential are calculated. It confirms that economic potential of offshore wind energy can contribute  Corresponding author. Tel: +45 99403658 Fax: +45 98153788 E-mail address: lixuan@plan.aau.dk 2 to 42%, 30% and 29% of the coastal regions' total electricity demands in 2010, 2020 and 2030. The shallow waters along the coasts of Fujian, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu and northern Guangdong are identified as suitable areas for developing offshore wind energy in terms of wind resources and economic costs. However, the influence of tropical cyclone risks on these regions and detailed assessments at regional or local scale are worth of further discussions. Nevertheless, the models and results provide a foundation for a more comprehensive regional framework that would address additional infrastructure, planning and policy issues.

An economic assessment of tropical cyclone risk on offshore wind farms

“…where N denotes the return period of tropical cyclones, C I in €/km 2 denotes the investment cost per ocean area unit of offshore wind farms within the EEZ of China [15].…”

Offshore Wind Energy in Emerging Countries: A Decision Support System for the Assessment of Projects

“…An investigation of offshore wind energy resources in China was performed by Hong and Möller [13]. They use a geographical information system (GIS) in combination with levelized production costs (LPC) to provide regional information about the potential for offshore wind parks and their costs.…”

Evaluation of offshore wind resources by scale of development

“…The SCREAM model has predecessors in [15] but works in a continuous manner, meaning that resources and costs are assessed continuously grid cell by grid cell for the entire available area, rather than specifying areas beforehand [16], merely locating spatially unspecific projects [3], or assuming a generic park size [17]. Data was collected using a review of available technology and cost data [3,9,10,17,18,19]. The model derives spatially explicit cost functions from empirical offshore project data, by extracting the correlation of costs and spatial parameters such as water depth and distance to shore and harbours.…”

“…Costs and a series of other parameters are then compared, and policy implications discussed. For this purpose two databases for the SCREAM-model (Spatially Continuous Resource Economic Analysis Model, [9,10]) are being built, which include a spatial model of the Danish exclusive economic zone (EEZ) with most of the natural, technical and planning parameters that determine the availability of areas for offshore wind energy, the utilizable wind resource, and its marginal costs in a continuous manner.…”