Review on Engineering Practices and Future Technology Prospects of European Offshore Wind Power

Offshore wind power has been developed in Europe for nearly 30 years. Nowadays, it has been developed into one of the most important sources of renewable energy generation, and occupies strategical importance in future renewable energy planning and adoption. Offshore wind farms start their journey in several European countries including Denmark, Britain, and the Netherlands in the early 1990s from a series of demonstration projects. From the initial size of plants of a few megawatts, the size gradually increases to hundreds of megawatts and to gigawatts nowadays. In this process, European wind power industry has accumulated vast experience in electric design, monitoring, operation and maintenance. In view of the development process of European wind farms, this paper starts from reviewing some of the main technical problems arising from different stages of the development. After that, it focus on several major issues in electrical design, and summarizes some experience in engineering practice from the perspective of electrical design. Finally, the paper reviewes a few technical trends that can impact on the future development and integration of offshore wind power.