Is offshore wind the energy of the future?

[Music] [Applause] that is a never-ending supply of green energy because as you can see it's windy as hell out here I'm talking about offshore wind farms their potential is huge they've become so popular that even big old oil is pumping money into it [Music] so if offshore is such a big deal why aren't our coastlines totally swamped with these wind farms and why on Earth did Germany stop construction of them completely in 2021 to find that out I'm going eye to eye with these technological Giants and for that you have to get up very early [Music] and switch clothes to blend in a little finally I get to meet these crazy dudes Wind Farm technicians they climb up wind turbines in the middle of the ocean the antrika has been doing this for more than 12 years he's an electrician by profession but grew bored with that traditional land-based job oh [Music] Kansas before we go aboard I need additional safety equipment [Music] joining us on board are about 100 kilos of lubricants with further equipment already waiting at our destination I've never been out on the high sea I'm afraid of heights and I have absolutely no idea if my stomach is up to this but we'll see it takes us one hour just to get to the wind farm and norda grunde is one of the closer ones some are three hours away from the mainland in total Germany now has 27 such installations making us number three in the world on the installed capacity front only the UK and China have more [Music] the reason why everyone is so excited about offshore wind is that it solves one of renewable Energy's biggest problems unpredictability because out here you basically have win 365 days a year plus that wind is stronger than on land and the huge facilities aren't in anyone's front yard s [Music] [Music] with its 18 turbines and an overall capacity of 110 megawatts the norda grinder Wind Farm can power up to 57 000 households per year the offshore turbines are also larger than the ones on land and they have twice the capacity so they need less space to generate the same amount of energy one reason why these huge wind farms aren't popping up everywhere is electricity needs to go where it's actually needed Germany is an unusual case in that sense because here the power needs to travel from the North Sea all the way to the South which is home to a lot of energy intensive industries that requires high voltage direct current systems and guess what most of these high voltage transmission lines that would further the signal from this big station into land haven't even been built yet approval processes just take years or even decades in Germany originally they were set up to be up and running by 2022 but public protests delayed construction until 2026 or even 2028. that means that these wind farms could have produced more energy but they've been knocked back because otherwise too much power would hit the grid and cause a massive outage across Germany to make that happen the turbines are rotated out of the wind and stop producing electricity this is called feed in management which has performed three or four times a day across the entire German grid and it costs quite a lot of money between 1 and 1.5 billion euros per year to counter that power grids all over the world need to be rebuilt substantially but the switch from centralized systems relying on energy production where needed towards a renewable energy friendly and decentralized grid will take decades and cost billions of euros back on the boat it's getting a bit hectic the technicians leaving the boat is the the most dangerous moment of the day unfortunately I can't go over there because I'm missing like four weeks of training on how not to die but fortunately we strapped a GoPro on yarn there he goes on the platform he'll be about 10 meters above sea level the team spends four to five days servicing one turbine as well as greasing moving Parts they are also checking the torque the cable connections batteries and the rotor blades [Music] [Applause] [Music] all of this hassle just to maintain offshore wind farms and their complex construction actually makes electricity more expensive than on onshore wind farms if you compare the best case scenarios for on and offshore the price of offshore is almost double which is why Germany decided to limit construction to avoid supercharging electricity prices but that led to a complete hold in 2021 and is taking a toll on the industry spokesperson of the German Wind Farm operator WPD ENT um industry associations claim that up to a third of jobs in the sector could be at risk boy these things are just massive one 100 meters in height and 126 meters wide that's a whole football field but even though it might sound a little weird because we are in the open ocean space is a problem here this becomes clearer when we look at the map of the North Sea looks like there's a whole lot of nothing around us but on here not so much wind farms are built in so-called exclusive economic zones where only the country that it belongs to can make use of the Marine Resources so all around us Germany gets to decide who goes where and who makes money here and these zones are crowded with a whole bunch of different Industries for one they are international shipping routes that have been in place for hundreds of years then you have military exercise zones and fishing grounds further space is taken up by protective areas for wildlife and nature conservation and then pretty much the rest of it is covered in wind farms and the huge submarine cables that lead to them so if you want to expand wind energy you'll soon run into nature reserves like the docker Bank in the North Sea and this is where nature conservationists and the wind industry totally Clash basically the Dollar Bank is the biggest sandbank in all of the North Sea making it perfect for installing wind farms shallow Waters and relatively calm seas but it also belongs to Europe's natural heritage it's home to a range of endangered species and hosts a great variety of fish and even porpoises that like things quiet and guess what is Extremely Loud building with Farms studies show that maximum sound levels are often exceeded even when using noise limiting devices marine mammals are particularly sensitive to uh to high sound levels because uh they are using sounds to uh to geolocate themselves but also to uh to hunt for for prey and Stephen decree is a leading researcher into the ecological impact of wind energy in the Belgian North Sea they lose habitat because they try to avoid his hand these high sound levels which means that they escape from the area where there is too much sand so during the construction Works larger areas and we're now talking about 10 10 20 kilometers may be avoided by this between them simply because they do not like it this is what we know and then of course the major issue is what does that mean to the population you know how an individual reacts but what does that mean to the population a factor that is currently unknown as Marine populations are hard to keep track of and above ground they can create problems foresee or migrating birds they are either displaced or they die very marginally from collision with these huge turbines as a consequence radar systems have been installed on wind farms they can detect large quantities of birds and automatically shut down the facility if need be arguably the biggest impact happens below the water because we put these enormous structures there that just didn't exist before below this thing are 350 tons of steel and concrete 350 tons like wrap that around your head and it creates an artificial Reef below with Marine live ranging from Resident blue muscles that grow on the structures to visiting seals that are attracted by higher densities of fish if you think about that all of a sudden you get a hot spot of biodiversity hotspot or species and a hospital biodiversity which of course which of course does not go unnoticed for higher level Predators fish fish feed on lentils for example fish are attracted if they know that they're not sure that the turbine offers quite a lot of fruit catch but it will be that's what we do as well we go to a restaurant because because we know there's food depends on fishing in and around most offshore wind farms also support this artificial Reef effect and increase biodiversity the problem is we don't know really if that's good or bad for the entire nor seed because we know too little about marine ecosystems as a whole but there's an option that could potentially resolve both the space problem and to a degree environmental concerns floating wind farms like this one off the coast of Scotland the first of its kind developed by Norwegian State oil and gas company ecuinor instead of being hammered into the ground the turbines just float on the surface and bigon loves it basically because they have been building floating stuff for Drilling and oil extraction since day one they might look pretty much the same but they are in fact floating you can see the difference from the tilt but for now the technology is quite expensive as just a handful of farms have been developed enough of a future Chit Chat time to get our technicians back after eight hours on the farm ers thank you [Music] just here give yourself yes offshore wind energy is expensive and the environmental effects are somewhat unclear but to avoid a climate crisis in my opinion this is still better than putting up another core powered plant [Music] actually I have to admit I'm quite happy to have Solid ground below my feet again if you did like the video like it subscribe to the channel WE Post new videos every Friday

Channel: DW Planet A

Views: 439,031

Keywords: DW, Deutsche Welle, Offshore Windpark, Wind energy, green energy, clean energy, renewable energy, offshore wind farm, Offshore wind, grid, power grids, clean energy sustainability, sustainable energy, explainer, power lines, wind power, power distribution, high-voltage power lines, green energy problems, high-voltage electricity, electric distribution, yt:cc=on, climate change, biodiversity, birds, oil industry, floating wind turbine, floating offshore, floating wind farm

Id: IsUBq3BM8rU

Length: 14min 16sec (856 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021