Electromagnetism: the basics

Electrical energy can be generated by rotating magnets inside a coil of conductive wire.

The big question is how to achieve that rotation.In conventional power stations, fossil fuels like
coal,

gas and oil are burnt to heat water, producing high pressure steam that can drive a turbine

and, in turn, an electrical generator.

Unfortunately, this also produces carbon dioxide and other harmful emissions,

as well as relying on finite resources that need to be constantly extracted from underground

and transported to the power station.

In a wind turbine, the rotation is achieved through the clean, natural,

and ultimately unlimited power of the wind.

Inside the wind turbine

To capture wind energy, the top part of the turbine is turned to face the wind, the three
blades are set at exactly the right angle, and the movement of the air past them causes
them to rotate.

Within the nacelle – the non-rotating part on top of the turbine – the blades’ rotation is
passed through a drive shaft, often via gear box, to turn magnets inside a coil of wire.
This generates an alternating current of electricity.
The wind farm as a power plant
One single wind turbine can generate a few megawatts (MW) of power. That’s a lot
compared to the power needed to light a home, for example. But it’s still much less than
the steam turbine in a conventional power station.

That’s why wind turbines are grouped together to form a wind farm. This can be thought
of as one big power station – but one that doesn’t create any emissions when it
generates electricity.

An offshore wind farm is made up of many turbines spread out over a wide area of
ocean. Each one is firmly fixed to a foundation piece on the seafloor, with a tower that
extends up into the air where the blades can make use of higher wind speeds.

Did you know?

The turbines on the Skipjack Wind Farm will each be able to generate 12 MW of power.
One rotation of a single turbine will generate enough electricity to power a typical
Maryland or Delaware home for more than 19 hours.

Skipjack Wind 2

Sending the power ashore

Each wind turbine sends its power through cables down the tower and under the
seabed to an offshore substation. Here the energy is stepped up to a higher voltage
ready to send ashore via high-voltage cables. Higher voltage means less energy is lost
in transmission.

On land, another substation adjusts the voltage again so that the electricity can be fed
into the grid and distributed via power lines to the homes and business that need it.

Learn more about what happens when the power reaches land
Keeping the blades turning for a quarter century
A wind farm is expected to be in commercial operation for at least 25 years. During this time, it needs to
be serviced and maintained to keep working optimally, prevent faults, and fix anything that goes wrong.

This work is done by a team of highly skilled wind turbine technicians. These technicians use their
knowhow, along with the latest technological innovations, to keep everything working as it should,
troubleshooting technical problems as they arise, and carrying out inspections.

Because offshore wind farms are usually located far from the shore, crews of technicians often live on a
service and operation vessel – a floating staff hotel – for two weeks at a time. This means they can easily
access the wind turbines that need attention – and take two weeks’ well-deserved leave in between
shifts.
Did you know?

As well as creating jobs for turbine technicians, offshore wind generates work, opportunities and
economic benefits throughout the local communities where it is built.

What do we do with old wind farms?

When a wind farm eventually reaches the end of its lifespan, it’s either
decommissioned, life-extended, or repowered.

While life extension involves repairing and maintaining the existing wind turbines for
further years of service, both decommissioning and repowering mean removing the old
turbines.

Repowering involves replacing the old turbines with the latest larger and more efficient
models, while decommissioning means completely dismantling the wind farm.

In either case, the old turbines need to be removed. At present, up to 95% of a wind
turbine can be recycled, with the lightweight blades proving more challenging. In 2021,
Ørsted committed to send no more blades to landfill, but instead to explore options for
reuse and recycling.

Recycling wind turbines

Today, we can recycle 85-95% of the material from a decomissioned wind turbine.

Is offshore wind power reliable?

Offshore wind is a highly reliable energy source. Wind

turbines are able to generate clean energy out at sea,
even when wind speeds seem low from the shore.
Near constant wind speeds at sea
The wind doesn’t often feel that powerful, does it? But out at sea, and hundreds of feet up in the
air, the blades of offshore wind turbines are exposed to much faster and almost constant wind,
allowing them to generate electricity even when things seem calm on dry land.

That’s one of the main benefits of situating offshore wind turbines far from the shore – along
with drastically minimizing any visual impact.
But what if there really is no wind?
Even out at sea, wind speeds do vary, and with them the amount of power wind turbines
can produce. That’s why energy grids are supplied by a mixture of different sources,
meaning that there’s always something producing power.

we want to build a world that runs entirely on green energy. We’re sure that offshore wind will play a
leading role here. But there will still be the flexibility to use other sources, like onshore wind, sustainable
biomass, solar power, and large scale battery storage, to help balance the grid and ensure that
the lights can always stay on.

Do wind farms impact property value?

Offshore wind farms are generally located far out at sea with very little impact on the view. In these
cases, studies reveal that offshore wind has little to no influence on property prices.
Study finds property prices unaffected by offshore
wind
In 2018, a large-scale study analyzed the impact of onshore and offshore wind turbines
on the value of nearby residential and vacation properties in Denmark, a country that
has had offshore wind for 30 years.1
It concluded that having an ocean view including a wind farm had no significant impact
on property prices, in comparison to having a sea view without a wind farm.

Skipjack 2 delivers clean energy – from a distance

The study included two Danish offshore wind farms that are relatively close to the shore
– Nystad at 2.2 miles and Rødsand 5.6 miles. In neither case were property prices
affected by the presence of offshore wind farms.

By comparison, Skipjack Wind 2 will be at least 20 miles from the Maryland coast,
making it