Offshore Wind Balance of System Cost Modeling
The balance-of-system (BOS) costs of an offshore wind plant include:
Installation costs of the wind turbine (rotor-nacelle assembly and tower)
Capital Expenditures (CapEx) and installation costs of the substructure
CapEx and installation costs of the array and export cables
CapEx and installation costs of the offshore substation (OSS)
Onshore construction costs required to connect the turbine to the grid
Port fees and commissioning costs
Note
ORBIT does not specify a dollar-year when calculating BOS cost and it does not account for inflation. To provide a flexible and adaptable simulation model, components of the wind plant may incorporate default cost values. Please advise that these values are approximated using avaiable information or best-guess. To improve the fidelity of this tool, users should consider replacing the default values with better informed costs.
Evaluating BOS costs is complicated by the large number of design choices for each component, the impact of weather delays on the installation processes, the challenge of transporting and hoisting large components at sea, the variation in geospatial characteristics between different projects, and the limited number of vessels capable of conducting these operations. The broad design space associated with the BOS costs of an offshore wind project provides significant opportunities for project developers to reduce overall costs through innovative technologies and/or installation methodologies.
Some additional resources that describe offshore wind BOS in greater detail are listed below