Correlation challenges for North Sea offshore wind power: a Norwegian case study.

Area of Science:

• Energy Systems
• Renewable Energy
• Optimization

Background:

• Offshore wind power is expanding rapidly in the North Sea.
• Interactions between wind farms present correlation challenges impacting optimal siting and capacity scaling.
• EU interconnections are crucial for optimizing and stabilizing wind power generation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the correlation challenges in North Sea offshore wind power.
• To minimize the variance of total accumulated wind power in the North Sea.
• To evaluate the impact of interconnections on wind power development, particularly for Norway.

Main Methods:

• Applied the Augmented Lagrangian Algorithm (ALA) to solve a nonlinear convex optimization problem.
• Utilized a 20-year historical hour-by-hour dataset for analysis.
• Developed two scenarios for Norwegian offshore wind development: one considering continental interconnections and one without.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated that ALA effectively solves the optimization problem.
• Showcased the benefits of northern Norway offshore wind expansion for enhancing overall wind power value when considering interconnections.
• Highlighted that neglecting interconnections leads to concentrated development in southern Norway (Sørlige Nordsjø II).
• Estimated the wind power correlation coefficient as a function of distance.
• Analyzed power deviations and intermittencies, showing dependence on time resolution.

Conclusions:

• Optimizing offshore wind power in the North Sea requires addressing correlation challenges.
• Strategic placement of wind capacity, like in northern Norway, coupled with interconnections, maximizes value and production stability.
• Integration challenges are sensitive to the time resolution of the analysis.