Circuitos eléctricos de un aerogenerador offshore

Abstract

La tecnología eólica marina se trata de una vertiente de la industria energética que ha ganado importancia en los últimos 20 años. Su principal ventaja respecto a los parques terrestres es que producen una mayor cantidad de energía. En primer lugar porque se trata de máquinas de gran tamaño que tienen una mayor capacidad de generación, asi se compensa, en parte, su mayor coste de producción e instalación. En segundo lugar porque en las zonas marinas se calcula una velocidad de 1 m/s por encima de las zonas costeras próximas debido a que no hay obstáculos y a que la rugosidad del suelo es menor, esto significa que en un parque eólico offshore la producción de electricidad a lo largo del año es del orden de un 20% más que en tierra. Su principal desventaja es la inversión necesaria para realizar la instalación, ya que el mar no es un medio idóneo para la instalación de aerogeneradores.

Wind offshore generation is a part of energetic industry that has gained a lot of importance in the last 20 years. Its main advantage in comparison to onshore wind farms is that they produce a higher amount of energy. First of all because the electric machines used in this type of farms are much bigger than the onshore ones and produce more electricity. In this way, the higher investment done in offshore farms is in some way balanced. Secondly because in the sea the wind speed is in average 1m/s higher than in ground, due to the absence of obstacles and the lower rugosity of the surface. This means that the production in an offshore park is a 20% higher than in an onshore one. Its main disadvantage is that the investment required is much higher. The reason is that the sea is not the most optimal place to build a wind farm. This technology is not working in Spain yet, but it is giving very good results in some other European countries such as United Kingdom or Denmark and it is a good way of producing energy for countries with a high density of population or with supplying problems that want to promote renewable energies. Another advantage of this system is that coastal zones are highly populated, so the losses in transport would be much lower than carrying energy to a place inland.