Genel
Wind farm development
The investment in Wind Energy represents a typical example of a business project for the assessment of which is required a sound experience in multidisciplinary fields such as environmentally compatibility, meteorology, civil, mechanical and electrical engineering.
Developing a wind farm involves a significant amount of time and money: during this phase, investors and developers need to have a clear overview of all the technical features in order to identify the risks and make the best decisions for the project and avoid waste of resources.
Safeguarding the investment means designing a successful project and that’s why it is important to have a third party opinion and a technical assistance since the beginning of the development phase, regardless the size of the project.
WINDFOR provides a thorough professional assistance to build wind energy projects successfully, efficiently and cost-effectively, minimizing risk and increasing bankability with 35 years of experience.
The cornerstones of Wind Farm development can be summarized as: Wind, Grid, Environment, License and Permits, Public Acceptance and Economy. Starting from the green field, these are the main criteria to be applied for site screening and site selection of a Wind Project.
In Turkey, the orography often complex, the environmental constraints, the wide-ranging wind conditions and the lack of a reliable wind database are key factors requiring to find the best approach at the very early stage of the development, starting from the site screening.
A preliminary feasibility study combining an analysis of the regional and local wind resource, preliminary grid connection, environmental and economical risk analysis, shall be performed in order to verify the challenges of the project.
According to the stage of the development, a Feasibility study may include the following analysis:
Preliminary Energy Assessment, based on short term measurements and/or metereological data, reanalysis data
Administrative Evaluation , Planning Evaluation, constraints status, IEA regulations, seismicity
Analysis of Land Characteristics and Land Ownership Evaluation
Analysis of TEIAS Connection Point and accessibility
Radar and airport, Natural Water Resources Evaluation, Mining Licenses
Evaluation License Process, Existing Project Licenses in the area and other Applications
Technical and economic assumptions to be included in the financial model (development costs, CAPEX and OPEX, revenues)
Focusing on the first criteria, the Wind, during April and May 2014 many developers faced issues with the MGM application, that have caused the installation of met masts in locations not representative of their wind project, creating difficulties with license applications and increasing risks for their business.
The goal of a wind monitoring campaign is to provide the most representative wind resource characterization of the project site. And in complex terrain wind conditions can vary significantly within a relatively small radius. Choosing the right measurement program pays off its investment, allowing from the beginning to have reliable Preliminary Energy Assessment, to understand the criticality of the project and consequently to start early the optimization of the project design and the selection of the wind turbines suitable for the site.
According to the site limits, the complexity of the orography, the location and characteristics of the measurement mast (namely, its representativeness of the wind farm), a single measurement mast may be not enough to provide an Energy Yield Assessment with an acceptable uncertainty level. To strongly reduce risks and uncertainties at standard market levels, both for the bankability of the Project and to protect the investment, the measurement campaign may involve a number of masts and remote sensing systems, such as Light Detection and Ranging or Sonic Detection And Ranging systems, in particular for the vertical extrapolation of the wind speed.
IEC 61400-12-1 compliance of the met towers and remote sensing should be ensured and extensively documented by installation reports as well as each maintenance’s traceability.
Timely and thorough validation procedures allow to detect erroneous data, equipment failures and promptly manage maintenance services. An appropriate On-going Wind data Monitoring during the measurement is required to ensure a high data recovery.
According to the stage of the development, wind data analysis and energy assessment can be provided with different level of details and reporting: nonetheless the accuracy of the quality control and the validation of the wind flow modeling must be guaranteed.
Wind data analysis shall cover in details all the characteristic parameters of the wind at site, including: wind speed duration curve, distribution of wind speed by direction (wind roses), turbulence intensity, gust factor, seasonal and daily components of wind speed, wind shear analysis, standard deviation of wind direction, parameters of the Weibull distribution, physics such as air temperature and atmospheric pressure.
The wind speed statistics determined by the data collected at site usually are a picture of what has been observed during a limited period of time, different and shorter than the operational lifetime of a future wind farm. A long term analysis is need to verify the alignment of the average measured wind speed to that should be expected at site on the long term, possibly 10 years at least.
Energy Assessment can be performed with linear or CFD models, according to time requirements and the orography of the site. Beyond the long term wind data, attention shall be paid to: the accuracy of the elevation and roughness data in input to the model, the verification and validation of the wind flow model, cross prediction errors, the ruggedness index, the atmospheric stability, horizontal and vertical extrapolations, wakes analysis and layout optimization.
From the Expected Gross energy, is derived the Net Energy of the wind farm based on the analysis of the potential wind farm losses (WTGs, BOP and grid availability, transformer and line losses, environmental effects, blades and drive train degradation, power curve adjustment, curtailment, etc).
The uncertainty of each step of the assessment, from the wind data analysis to the losses, must be evaluated in order to estimate the Expected Net Energy production of the wind farm at a range of confidence levels, i.e. the P75%(1), P90%(1) and P75%(10), P90%(10) values, that are the annual expected productions with a probability of 75% and 90% of being exceeded during each single year of operation and in ten years.
For project financing purposes, the Energy Assessment shall include a Site Suitability Analysis according IEC Standard 61400-1 Ed. 3, as soon as enough wind statistics are avaiable at site, in order to verify the suitability of the selected wind turbines and of the selected layout for the site specific conditions.
To sum up: WINDFOR provides technical assistance to customers on the preliminary assessment of the suitability of a site for the installation of a wind farm and its connection to the Grid, analyzing in detail all the main aspect that affects the realization of a Wind Farm, such as accessibility, construction risks, permitting and environmental constraints, expected production and development, construction and operation costs of the project.
All of the electricity consumed by Amazon’s operations, including its data centers, was matched with 100% renewable energy in 2023.
x In 2019, we set a goal to match all of the electricity consumed across Amazon’s global operations—including our data centers, corporate buildings, grocery stores and fulfillment centers—with 100% renewable energy by 2030. Today, we’re proud to share that we’ve met that goal seven years ahead of schedule. To get there, we’ve become the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world for four years running, according to Bloomberg NEF, and have invested billions of dollars in more than 500 solar and wind projects globally, which together are capable of generating enough energy to power the equivalent of 7.6 million U.S. homes.
Achieving this goal is an important milestone in our efforts to meet our Climate Pledge commitment of net-zero carbon by 2040. Looking ahead, we remain as committed as ever to getting there, but the path is changing in ways that no one quite anticipated even just a few years ago – driven largely by the increasing demand for generative AI. This will require different sources of energy than we originally projected, so we’ll need to be nimble and continue evolving our approach as we work toward net-zero carbon.
While we’ll continue investing heavily to add substantial amounts of renewable energy to our portfolio, we’re also exploring new carbon-free energy sources that can complement renewables and balance our needs. We’ve known from the start that our path to net-zero would have many obstacles and need to be adjusted for changes to both our business and the world. Nevertheless, as with all of our long-term goals, we remain optimistic and focused on achieving them.
“Reaching our renewable energy goal is an incredible achievement, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done to get here, seven years early. We also know that this is just a moment in time, and our work to decarbonize our operations will not always be the same each year—we’ll continue to make progress, while also constantly evolving on our path to 2040,” said Amazon Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst. “Our teams will remain ambitious, and continue to do what is right for our business, our customers, and the planet. That’s why we’ll continue investing in solar and wind projects, while also supporting other forms of carbon-free energy, like nuclear, battery storage, and emerging technologies that can help power our operations for decades to come.”
“By achieving its 100% renewable energy goal, Amazon has made it possible for hundreds of new solar and wind projects to be constructed, bringing new sources of clean energy to grids and communities around the world,” said Kyle Harrison, head of sustainability research at BloombergNEF. “Addressing climate change while balancing society’s skyrocketing energy demands is a massive challenge, and Amazon’s commitment to clean power demonstrates how a single company can help accelerate the transition to the low-carbon economy on a global scale.”
Amazon renewable energy
Here’s a look at just a few of our newest renewable energy projects around the world.
Amazon’s renewable energy highlight
Since 2019, we’ve enabled renewable energy projects in 27 countries. In fact, we were the first corporation to enable utility-scale renewable energy projects in India, Greece, South Africa, Japan, and Indonesia, among other countries. To accomplish this, Amazon worked with policymakers to enable first-of-their-kind policies to help corporations support the construction of new solar and wind projects in these countries. The use of renewable energy has also been incorporated across Amazon’s broader corporate footprint. Amazon’s HQ2 headquarters in Virginia was designed to run with zero operational carbon emissions, and its electricity consumption is matched by a local solar farm. In addition to utility-scale projects, we’ve also enabled almost 300 on-site solar projects on the rooftops and properties of Amazon fulfillment centers, Whole Foods Market stores, and other corporate buildings around the world. In total, Amazon’s renewable energy portfolio will help avoid an estimated 27.8 million tons of carbon per year once all projects are operational.
Launching Mississippi’s first wind farm, supporting local residents while helping power Amazon data centers
Operations recently began at Delta Wind, the first utility-scale wind farm in Mississippi, which is generating carbon-free energy to help power Amazon’s nearby operations, including future data centers. The project includes some of the tallest land-based wind turbines in the U.S., allowing the project to optimize energy production. The project is hosted on 14,000 acres of farmland owned by Abbot Myers, a third generation farmer who receives revenue from the project’s developer, AES. This has helped Myers purchase new farm equipment and expand his rice and soybean crops. Amazon also recently announced a first-of-its-kind deal with local Mississippi utility company Entergy to enable 650 megawatts (MW) of new renewable energy projects in the state over the next three years, and provides funding for future upgrades to local grid and energy infrastructure over the next two decades. Amazon is now poised to enable a total of 1.3 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy projects through a combination of new solar and wind farms being built across the state.
Enabling nearly 1.7 GW of offshore wind—more than any company in the World
Enabling nearly 1.7 GW of offshore wind—more than any company in the World
Amazon is supporting nearly 1.7 GW of capacity across six offshore wind farms in Europe that, once fully operational, are expected to produce enough energy to power 1.8 million average European homes. These projects make Amazon the top corporate purchaser of offshore wind globally. Offshore wind is able to generate significant amounts of energy due to the consistent flow of ocean breezes, and has the potential to meet more than one-third of global power needs, according to the United Nations. Amazon is also working with developers focused on optimizing wind turbine technology, which helps maximize the amount of electricity produced. Last year, the Amazon-Shell HKN Offshore Wind Project, or HKN, became the first offshore wind farm enabled by Amazon to begin operations. The project spans two locations off the coast of the Netherlands, and boasts more than 750 MW of renewable energy capacity.
Growing renewable energy opportunities in the Asia Pacific region
Amazon has enabled more than 80 renewable energy projects across the Asia Pacific region to date, including 50 projects across India, and projects in countries including Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea. In Japan specifically, Amazon is announcing our first onshore wind farm and standalone utility-scale solar project—a 33 MW wind project located in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, as well as a 9.5 MW solar farm located in Kudamatsu, Yamaguchi Prefecture.Amazon is the largest corporate purchaser in Japan, with a total of 20 projects enabled to date. The projects include 14 onsite solar installations on rooftops of local Amazon buildings, and six offsite wind and solar projects.
While there has been a surge in solar projects in Japan, with solar accounting for nearly 10% of Japan’s energy mix in 2022, the mountainous terrain in the country covering over 70% of land has led to limited space to build large utility-scale energy projects. This is why aggregated solar projects—where many smaller, distributed projects are bundled into one larger power purchase agreement (PPA)—have worked well in Japan. In 2021, Amazon enabled the country’s first utility-scale aggregated solar project to be backed by a corporate PPA. Since then, we’ve engaged with Japanese industry groups and policy stakeholders to help expand corporate renewable energy procurement options in the country.
Modernizing the grid to deliver new carbon-free energy
An important part of Amazon’s renewable energy investments includes work to improve the grid, which needs to be modernized in order to deliver energy from new solar, wind and other carbon-free energy projects to users. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world must add or replace 80 million kilometers of grids by 2040 to meet climate targets, and more than 1,500 GW of renewables projects are waiting in the queue globally. To help address this, teams across Amazon are engaging with energy regulators to find new ways to support grid modernization, remove permitting obstacles, and deploy grid enhancing technologies. We also co-founded the Emissions First Partnership, a coalition of energy purchasers focused on encouraging renewable energy investments in regions with grids that are primarily fueled by fossil fuel energy sources.
There are teams of Amazonians around the world working on projects like these every day because, with operations as broad and complex as ours, there’s no easy way or single path to get to net zero carbon. But we love taking on big challenges and we’re proud of the progress we’ve made so far.
New report outlines route for global supply chain resilience and growth, based on industry and government cooperation
Bottlenecks in the global wind industry supply chain could leave the world with only three-quarters of the wind energy installations needed for a 1.5°C pathway by 2030, i.e. a 650 GW gap to meet climate targets. The supply chains in the wind sector for minerals, components and key enabling infrastructure like ports and platforms are not fit-for-purpose for a net zero world, where today’s global installed wind fleet must scale up by roughly three times by the end of the decade.
Solutions exist, but require stronger collaboration between government and industry, as well as among supply chain actors themselves, according to a new report “Mission Critical: Building the global wind energy supply chain for a 1.5°C world” from the Global Wind Energy Council, in partnership with Boston Consulting Group. The report assesses the implications for energy transition policy across four future macroeconomic scenarios by 2030, and how broader global developments like rising inflation and open-door trade versus increased trade barriers will impact the wind supply chain landscape, market size and sustainability of industry returns.
The first-of-its-kind comprehensive analysis across key components and materials in the sector finds that the wind supply chain is highly globalised, with a strong focus in China for rare earth element refining and component manufacturing in particular. A resetting of political priorities towards industrial resilience and security in many areas of the world, including Europe and the US, in addition to increasing market volatility, poses risks for creating a competitive and sufficiently scaledup global supply chain. Policy and regulatory issues around permitting, grids, investment certainty and localisation are also holding back volume in the wind pipeline, which could otherwise send positive demand signals for supply chains to scale.
“This is a watershed moment for getting trade and industrial policy in shape for a 1.5°C world. Wind energy will form the backbone of the future energy system based on renewables, but in order to enable a tripling of the world’s wind installations by 2030 we require a globalised, secure and competitive supply chain.Governments must work with the industry and the industry must work together to ensure the sector meets the enormous demand for clean and secure energy within this decade. Investment in supply chains has seen setbacks in many regions of the world, largely caused by challenges in policy, regulation and market design while industry itself needs to step up to the climate emergency by embracing standardisation with more global and modular technology design. Everyone has a role to play in this mission to create stronger and more resilient supply chains for the energy transition.”
Ben Backwell, Global Wind Energy Council CEO
“The wind industry manufacturing footprint must be able to do two very different things at the same time, deliver on the projected industry output (ramping up to 190 GW in 2030) and prepare to support the 1.5° transition which would require 70% more capacity (320 GW in 2030).”
Lars Holm, Partner and Director at BCG’s Centre for Energy Impact
The report explores the impact of four different macroeconomic scenarios, and how the wind industry can best navigate uncertainty and change in the global market. An ‘Open Door’ approach would yield the highest net positive impact in wind growth to reach climate goals, but the report anticipates the ‘Increased Barriers’ scenario as the most likely to materialise in this decade.
1)An Open Door scenario with growing regional collaboration on both supply and demand.
2)An Increased Barriers scenario where mar- kets increase trade barriers and turn attention towards domestic investment.
3)Economic Downturn where investments dry up and attention focuses towards low- cost rather than low-emission technology.
4)Global Escalation where increasing cross-border conflict reduces trade and shifts energy focus from decarbonisation towards availability.
The report outlines six key action areas that would set the conditions for large-scale wind supply chain growth and security:
- Address basic barriers to wind industry growth in land, grids and permitting to increase volume and predictability
- The wind industry must standardise and industrialise
- Regionalisation will be needed to support growth and resilience, while maintaining a globalised supply chain
- The market must provide clear and bankable demand signals
- Trade policy should aim to build competitive industries, not push higher costs onto end users
- Fundamental reform of the power market reform underpins further wind growth
Through a coordinated global effort from industry and policymakers, challenges in the global wind supply chain can be resolved over the course of this decade. Actions taken now in these six areas will help to foster a highly resilient and cost-efficient wind industry to decarbonise the world.
About GWEC
GWEC is a member-based organisation that represents the entire wind energy sector. The members of GWEC represent over 1,500 companies, organisations and institutions in more than 80 countries, including manufacturers, developers, component suppliers, research institutes, national wind and renewables associations, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies.
Find us at: https://gwec.net/
Genel
TotalEnergies Awarded a 20-year Contract to Supply 1.3 GW+ of Renewable Electricity to New Jersey
TotalEnergies and its partner Corio Generation (Corio) announce that the State of New Jersey selected their Attentive Energy Two offshore wind project for a 20-year contract to supply 1.34 GW of renewable electricity to the state. The project will deliver renewable power to over 650,000 homes.
Attentive Energy Two, a joint venture between TotalEnergies (70%) and Corio (30%), received the award in the State’s third competitive OREC (Offshore Renewable Energy Credits) solicitation, organized by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU). The development of the project is expected to provide up to $105 million in community investments across the state, and the partners are aiming for commissioning in 2031.
The profitability of the project is ensured by the guaranteed level of OREC revenue, with a first year set price of $131 per MWh after the start of commercial operations, inflated yearly by 3%, and the benefit of a 30% IRA tax credit. The contract awarded by the NJBPU also includes a one-time inflation adjustment mechanism to compensate for changes in construction costs environment until the final investment decision.
“We are honored that the State of New Jersey chose Attentive Energy Two to deliver reliable green electricity to New Jersey residents while contributing to the local economy and offshore wind supply chain. This is another success for us in the US electricity business, following the provisional award in October 2023 of a 25-year supply contract by the State of New York to our Attentive Energy One project,” said Vincent Stoquart, Senior Vice President Renewables at TotalEnergies. “Both Attentive Energy One and Two will support our operations in the attractive US power market, where we are developing a portfolio of more than 25 GW of flexible and renewable projects. They will also help us achieve our profitability target for this business segment of 12% ROACE by 2028, as well as our ambition of delivering more than 100 TWh of power generation by 2030.”
“The award of this long-term contract is a great achievement for Attentive Energy and great news for the people of New Jersey,” said Jonathan Cole, CEO of Corio Generation. “The Attentive Energy Two project will deliver clean, green energy to hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents and stimulate billions of dollars of regional investment.”
In February 2022, TotalEnergies secured maritime lease OCS-A 0538 at the New York Bight auction. It then partnered with New York-based electricity producer Rise and global offshore wind developer Corio to join forces in the development of the Attentive Energy offshore wind projects. In addition to the Attentive Energy Two project in New Jersey, the lease’s 3 GW capacity will serve the Attentive Energy One project in New York, which was provisionally awarded a 25-year contract to supply 1.4 GW of renewable electricity to New York in October 2023. These two projects aim to provide green electricity to more than a million homes across both states.
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