The University of Malta will be hosting the second International Offshore Wind Technical Conference (IOWTC 2019) being organised by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The event shall be held from November 3-6 at the Corinthia Hotel, St George’s Bay, St Julian’s.
Offshore wind turbine technology is breaking new ground and has reached higher levels of maturity, with the costs of electricity from wind farms at sea experiencing reductions of more than 50 per cent over the past five years.
In fact, the cost of electricity in the North Sea which benefits from high wind speeds is now competitive with that of fossil fuels. The cost of electricity for new projects is estimated to be of five to seven euro cents per kilowatt hour.
WindEurope statistics show that the installed capacity of offshore wind in Europe grew by 2.6 gigawatts during 2018, amounting to 10 per cent of the total installed capacity. The offshore wind industry is now expanding rapidly to other continents, with wind farm projects being built in the US and Asia.
Offshore wind is an important player that will contribute towards achieving the development of the blue economy. Yet, a number of engineering challenges remain. Existing commercial technology is based on the use of seabed-mounted structures such as monopoles that are only viable for supporting wind turbines in shallow waters, where sea depths do not exceed 50 metres.
The past decade has seen a significant drive by both academia and industry to develop floating wind turbine technology which will allow the feasible exploitation of wind energy available in deep waters, at sites that are further away the coast.
Offshore wind is an important player. Yet, a number of engineering challenges remain
A number of full-scale prototype floating wind turbines have been tested, paving the way to make offshore wind harvesting in deep waters a viable resource, thanks to the various innovations in floating support structure design and installation procedures. The floating wind market is expected to become a major industry by 2030. Many countries have not yet been able to exploit their own offshore wind resources due to constraints. A case in point is the Mediterranean region, which is characterised by comparatively deeper nearshore seas and the plethora of coastal stakeholders and activities. These make wind project development much more challenging until technologies that allow wind project implementation further offshore become mainstream.
IOWTC 2019 will draw together researchers, academics, policy makers and industry to discuss the latest scientific and technological developments in the wind industry. Participants will have the opportunity to attend leading edge workshops on current topics, including new offshore wind turbine concepts, offshore wind exploitation in deep waters, wind turbine design and performance simulation, wind farm siting, construction and new projects. This event is a must for anyone keen to gain first-hand insight into the offshore wind energy sector.
This conference is being co-sponsored by the Ministry for Energy and Water, Principle Power and Vryhof.
To register for the event, one can visit https://event.asme.org/IOWTC.
Prof. Tonio Sant and Dr Robert Farrugia are IOWTC 2019 conference co-chairs.