Wind Energy (onshore and offshore)

Wind power is one of the fastest-growing renewable energy. And its cost keeps on falling. According to the International renewable energy agency, onshore and offshore production capacity jumped from 7.5 gigawatts (GW) in 1997, to 564 GW in 2018. In 2016 wind energy represented 16% of total renewable electricity. In 2019, wind-supplied electricity accounted for 5.3% of worldwide production.

A wind farm is a group of wind turbines that produces electricity transmitted by a power network. They’re built either onshore or offshore. Although onshore farms are cheaper than coal or gas plants, they’re often criticized for degrading natural landscapes; as they require large surfaces away from cities. Alternatively, offshore farms are more efficient and less harmful to the landscape, but they’re expensive to build and maintain.

In either case, wind turbine foundations require extensive soil analysis and high-quality design. At Hopper our calculation models simulate realistic construction costs, compliant with international standards and guidelines, to create the most efficient wind farm possible.

Hopper uses AEM (Applied Element Method), together with Soil-Structure Interaction to run reality simulations. These advanced analyses cut construction costs by up to 40% compared with traditional methods.