That is a never-ending supply of green energy. Because as you can see: it’s windy as hell out here.
I’m talking about offshore wind farms.
Their potential is huge. They’ve become so popular that even big old oil is pumping money into it.
So, if offshore is such a big deal: why aren’t our coastlines totally
swamped with wind farms yet and why on earth did Germany stop constructing them completely in 2021?!
To find that out I’m going to go eye to eye with these technological giants.
For that you have to get up very early.
And switch clothes to blend in a little.
Finally I get to meet these crazy dudes: Wind farm technicians.
They climb up wind turbines in the middle of the ocean.
Jan Träger has been doing this for more than 12 years.
He’s an electrician by profession, but grew bored with that traditional land-based job.
“What are you up to today?”
“We're heading out to the wind farm for some annual maintenance.
Today’s task is greasing. We'll be nice and grubby once we're done!”
“How big are the parts you’ll be greasing?”
“Pretty big. About the same height as me.”
“A decent size, then! OK, time to finish so you can get going.”
Before we go aboard, I need additional safety equipment.
“Looking good. Ready to set sail.”
Joining us on board are about 100 kilos of lubricants – with further equipment already waiting at our destination.
"I’ve never been out on the high sea, I’m afraid of heights
and I’ve absolutely no idea if my stomach is up to this. We’ll see."
It takes us one hour just to get to the wind farm.
And Nordergründe is one of the closer ones.
Some are three hours away from the mainland.
In total, Germany now has 27 such installations,
making us number three in the world on the installed capacity front.
Only the UK and China have more.
"The reason why everyone is so excited about offshore wind
is that it solves one of renewable energy’s biggest problems: unpredictability.
Because out here, you basically have wind 365 days a year."
Plus: that wind is stronger than on land.
And the huge facilities aren’t in anyone's front yard.
“What kind of output do these turbines have?”
“6. 2 MW, which puts them in the multi-megawatt category.
Compare that with your house,
which might have an annual consumption of 2.5 - 3,000 kilowatt-hours.
And here we have 6.2 megawatt-hours.”
“Nothing to sneeze at!”
With its 18 turbines and an overall capacity of 110 MW,
the Nordergründe wind farm can power up to 57,000 households per year.
The turbines in offshore plants are also larger than the ones on land.
And they have twice the capacity.
They therefore need less space to generate the same amount of energy.
"One reason why they’re not popping up everywhere:
They need to be connected to the grid, and the electricity needs to go where it’s actually needed."
Germany is an unusual case in that sense.
Because here the power needs to travel from the North Sea all the way to the South,
which is home to a lot of energy-intensive industries.
That requires high voltage direct current systems.
"And guess what:
most of those high voltage-transmission-lines that would further this signal from this big station into land
haven’t even been built yet.
Approval processes just take years or even decades in Germany."
Originally they were set to be up and running by 2022, but public protests delayed construction until 2026 or even 2028.
"That means these wind farms could produce more energy, but they’ve been knocked backed –
because otherwise, too much power would hit the grid and cause a massive outage across Germany."
To make that happen, the turbines are rotated out of the wind and stop producing electricity.
This is called Feed-in management, which is performed 3 or 4 times a day across the entire German grid.
And it costs quite a lot of money.
Between 1 and 1.5 billion euros per year.
"To counter that power grids all over the world need to be rebuilt substantially."
But the switch from centralized systems relying on energy production where needed
towards a renewable energy-friendly and decentralized grid will take decades.
And will cost billions of euros.
Back on the boat things are getting a bit hectic.
The technicians leaving the boat is the most dangerous moment of the day.
"It’s f***** insane man!"
"Unfortunately I can’t go, because I’m missing four weeks of training on how not to die,
but fortunately we strapped a go pro on Jan."
There he goes.
On the platform, he’ll be about 10 meters above sea level.
The team spends four to five days servicing one turbine:
As well as greasing moving parts, they’re also checking the torque, the cable connections, batteries and the rotor blades.
"All of this hassle just to maintain offshore wind farms
plus their complex construction, actually makes the electricity more expensive
than on onshore wind farms."
If you compare the best-case scenarios for on and offshore,
the price of offshore is almost double.
Which is why Germany decided to limit construction to avoid supercharging electricity prices.
But that led to a complete halt in 2021, and it’s taking a toll on the industry.
“We want to see people previously employed in the German industry also working on international projects and taking their experience abroad.
We can help make that happen, but only to a certain extent.”
This is Christian Schnibbe.
Spokesperson of German wind farm operator WPD.
“There are a number of rivals focusing solely on the German market,
and this dent is threatening their survival.
Other companies have already left the market.”
Industry associations claim that up to a third of jobs in the sector could be at risk.
"These things are massive: 100 Meters high and 126 Meters wide.
That’s a whole football field.
And even though it might sound a little weird because we are in the open ocean, space is a problem here."
This becomes clearer when we look at a map of the North Sea.
"Looks like there is a whole lot of nothing around us – but here, not so much.
Wind farms are built in so-called exclusive economic zones – where only the country that it belongs to can make use of marine resources.
So: all around us, Germany gets to decide who goes where, and who makes money here.
And these zones are crowded with a whole bunch of different industries.
For one, there are international shipping routes that have been in place for hundreds of years.
Then you have military exercise zones and fishing grounds.
Further space is taken up by protective areas for wildlife and nature conservation.
And then pretty much the rest of it is covered in wind-farms and huge submarine cables that lead to them.
So if you want to expand wind energy, you’ll soon run into nature reserves like Doggerbank in the North Sea.
"And this is where nature conservationists and the wind industry clash.
Basically, Doggerbank is the biggest sand bank in the North Sea."
Making it perfect for installing wind farms – shallow waters and relatively calm seas.
But it also belongs to Europe’s natural heritage.
It’s home to a range of endangered species, and hosts a great variety of fish and even porpoises that like things quiet.
"And guess what is extremely loud: Building wind farms."
Studies show that maximum sound levels are often exceeded.
Even when using voice-limiting devices.
“Marine mammals are particularly sensitive to high sound levels because they’re using sound to geolocate themselves, but also to hunt for prey.”
Steven Dagraer is a leading researcher into the ecological impact of wind energy in the Belgian North Sea.
“They lose habitat because they try to avoid these high sound levels.
Which means that they escape from the area while there is too much sound.
So during the construction works, large areas of about 10 to 20 kilometres may be avoided by these marine mammals simply because they do not like it.
This is what we know, and then of course the big question is what does that mean for the population.
We know how an individual reacts, but what does that mean for the population.”
A factor that is currently unknown, because marine populations are hard to keep track of.
"And above ground they can create problems for sea and migrating birds.
They are either displaced or they die – very marginally – from collision with these huge turbines."
As a consequence, radar systems have been installed on wind farms.
They can detect large quantities of birds and automatically shut the facility down if need be.
"Arguably the biggest impact happens below the water
because we put these enormous structures there that just didn’t exist before.
Below this thing are 350 tons of steel and concrete.
350 tons: wrap that around your head! And it creates an artificial reef below."
With marine-life ranging from resident blue mussels
that grow on the structure to visiting seals attracted by higher densities of fish.
“If you think about that, all of a sudden you get a hot spot of biodiversity.
Hot spot of species, hot spot of biodiversity, which of course does not go unnoticed for higher level predators.
Fish. Fish feed on bentals.
Fish are attracted if they know that a turbine offers quite a lot of food that’s where they will be.
That’s what we do as well. We got to a restaurant because we know there is food.”
Bans on fishing in and around most offshore windfarms also support this artificial-reef effect and increases biodiversity.
"The problem is: We don’t really know whether that is good or bad for the entire North Sea.
Because we know too little about marine ecosystems as a whole."
But there is an option that could potentially resolve both the space problem and, to a degree, environmental concerns:
Floating wind farms.
Like this one off the coast of Scotland – the first of its kind, developed by Norwegian state oil & gas company Equinor.
"Instead of being hammered into the ground, the turbines just float on the surface.
And big oil loves it.
Basically because they have been building floating stuff for drilling and oil extraction since day 1."
They might look pretty much the same, but they are in fact floating.
You can see the difference from the tilt.
But for now, the technology is quite expensive as just a handful of farms haven been developed.
Enough future chit chat: Time to get our technician back after eight hours “on the farm”.
“A day like that must leave him wiped out, right?”
“Yeah, you do feel a bit groggy!”
“Time to call it a day!”
“So this is yours – and the helmet too!”
"Yes, offshore wind energy is expensive. And the environmental aspects are somewhat unclear.
But to avoid a climate crisis – in my opinion – this is still better than putting up another coal powered plant."
"Guys, I actually have to admit I'm quite happy to have solid gound below my feet again.
If you did like the video: like it, subscribe to the channel.
We post new videos every Friday!"