Cost-benefit Analysis And Comparisons For Different Offshore Wind Energy Transmission Systems

TL;DR

This study compares traditional power cable transmission with innovative hydrogen-based methods for offshore wind energy delivery, analyzing costs, benefits, and optimal configurations through simulations over 30 years.

Contribution

The paper introduces and evaluates two hydrogen-based offshore energy transmission methods, providing a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis and optimal sizing models.

Findings

Hydrogen-based transmission methods are effective for long-distance offshore energy delivery.

Distance between wind farms influences system configuration and choice of transmission method.

Hydrogen methods show promising economic and technical advantages over traditional power cables.

Abstract

This paper investigates how to efficiently and economically deliver offshore energy generated by offshore wind turbines to onshore. Both power cables and hydrogen energy facilities are analyzed. Each method is examined with the associated proposed optimal sizing model. A cost-benefit analysis is conducted, and these methods are compared under different scenarios. Three long-distance energy transmission methods are proposed to transmit offshore energy onshore, considering the capital/operation costs for related energy conversion and transmission facilities. The first method that deploys power cables only is a benchmark method. The other two methods utilize a hydrogen supercenter (HSC) and transmit offshore energy to and onshore substation through hydrogen pipelines. For the second method, electrolyzers are placed at offshore wind farms connected to HSC with low-pressure hydrogen pipelines. For the third method, offshore wind power is distributed to the HSC and then converted into hydrogen using electrolyzers placed at the HSC. An offshore scenario including three wind farms located in the Gulf of Mexico and one onshore substation is used as the base test case. Numerical simulations are conducted over a planning period of 30 years using the proposed optimization models for each method separately. Simulation results show that the proposed hydrogen-based methods can effectively transmit offshore energy to the onshore substation. The distances between the wind farms can influence the selection and configuration of the offshore wind energy system. Moreover, the proposed study analyzes the cost and benefits for various systems with different energy carriers. It can also suggest which method could be the best candidate for offshore energy delivery system under which scenario and demonstrate a promising future for offshore wind power generation.