The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult has released a crystal ball vision of offshore wind that includes an army of autonomous robots, multi-rotor turbines and kite power.
The innovation body predicted trends for 2030, 2040 and 2050 based on ongoing research and design in the UK “and gaining traction across the world”.
In the 2030 period offshore wind could become “the backbone of the country’s energy mix with pioneering designs and storage technology potentially (meeting) a third of the UK’s electricity demand”.
Other trends include automated motherships carrying armies of droids to hazardous offshore locations where they will carry out maintenance and basic repairs cheaper than ever before.
Turbines will become bigger but challenges faced by scale and weight will mean more innovative designs will come to the fore, including multi-rotor designs and vertical axis turbines, said ORE Catapult.
Floating wind will be “the norm” by 2030 with turbines of up to 15MW as well as kite power generators. Rare earth magnets in generators will be replaced by “cheap, abundantly available ferrite magnets”.
ORE Catapult research and innovation director Stephen Wyatt said: “This is a very exciting time for the offshore wind industry. The industry is currently working with government to agree a transformational sector deal to enable additional capacity to deliver affordable electricity, grow innovative UK businesses and create UK jobs.”
Image: the use of drones will continue to grow in future, says ORE Catapult (Skyspecs)
Catapult predicts offshore future
By EBS