Abstract
The financial viability of an offshore wind project is dependent on many interrelated, site-specific factors. However, existing analysis tools in the public domain are not adequate to comprehensively evaluate proposed offshore projects for involved parties including potential investors, developers, and policy makers. Each site requires unique optimization of the physical design (for turbines, support structures, and farm parameters) to calculate a minimum cost of energy. Also specific to each offshore project are: 1) local deregulated power networks which impact revenues and penalty costs in the bidding process; 2) complex financing structures with multiple participants; 3) monetization of environmental impacts specific to energy sold/generated in a power network, including avoided emissions of displaced generations; 4) uncertain permitting and payment schedules which impact commissioning costs. This paper presents an Offshore Wind Integrated Cost model (OFWIC) that attempts to comprehensively include these factors. It summarizes the model architecture, describes implementation issues, and discusses case study results for a proposed offshore site near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Because the comprehensive cost calculations can provide insights beyond those of existing, public domain methodologies, further research on this type of model may be warranted.
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