Kinewell Energy has re-designed an existing offshore wind farm in a case study which demonstrated that its new software, KLOC, could have saved the developers 3% of the installed cable cost had the technology been available when the wind farm was designed.
The North East of England based company used the 576 MW Gwynt-y-mor in the case study. The software was used to optimise the geographical layout of the farm’s offshore electrical cables, which collect the energy before it is sent to shore.
During the study, Kinewell Energy found that GBP 2.2 million of the installed cable cost could be saved by utilising KLOC compared to traditional design techniques.
The savings were realised by reducing the overall cable length by 1.7 km and through the reduction of electrical losses; some 1.2 GWh per year.
“If our technology is used for all future UK offshore wind farms, we would expect an extra 70 GWh of electrical energy to reach the UK each year. That would negate around 27,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually whilst powering around 16,000 homes – all energy that would otherwise be wasted heating the sea,” Kinewell Energy’s Managing Director Andrew Jenkins said.
Kinewell launched the KLOC software in November 2015, following two years of research and development.