Offshore Wind Turbines: Reliability, Availability and Maintenance (Renewable Energy)

The development of offshore wind power has become a pressing modern energy issue in which the UK is taking a major part, driven by the need to find new electrical power sources, and avoiding the use of fossil fuels, in the knowledge of the extensive wind resource available around our islands and the fact that the environmental impact of offshore wind farms is likely to be low. However, there are major problems to solve if offshore wind power is to be realised and these revolve around the need to capture this energy at a cost per kWh which is competitive with other practicable sources. This will depend upon the longevity of the wind turbines which make up these offshore wind farms. Their availability, reliability and the efficacy and costeffectiveness of the maintenance, needed to achieve that availability, are essential to improve offshore wind lifecycle costs and the future of this emerging industry. Offshore Wind Turbines addresses these issues headon and demonstrates clearly to manufacturers, developers and operators the facts and figures of wind turbine operation and maintenance in the inclement offshore environment, recommending how maintenance should be done to achieve low lifecycle costs. The author is one of the principal international contributors to the measurement and improvement of wind turbine reliability and this book is based upon his and colleagues work in the area. This book will be valuable to wind power production companies, wind turbine manufacturing companies, wind operation and maintenance engineers, SCADA and condition monitoring engineers, research students and final year undergraduate students. This book will also be of interest to wind turbine technicians and power generation personnel.