• Energy Research

Each year, the wind sector is missing out on huge profits due to wind turbines failures of about €200 million in Spain, €700 million in Europe and €2,900 million globally. Taking operation cost into account, losses are actually triple. Adding the currently unfavorable economic situation and policies restricting the sales price, the only way for wind farms operators, maintenance companies, financial institutions, and insurance companies as well as investors to remain profitable is to improve maintenance and operation processes. Smartive is a company whose aim is to develop cloud-based software tools in order to improve the productivity of wind farms. This can be achieved based on newly available technology that allows the detection of anomalous operations by effectively programming preventive and corrective maintenance operations. Diagnosis and prognosis tools will allow adjusting operations and consequently the productivity of wind farms. The overall objective of the Phase II Cloud Diagnosis project is to scale-up our SMARTGEAR technology that allows predictive maintenance to optimize the management and operation of wind parks. Specifically, we will improve the current device by introducing communication protocols allowing extracting data from multiple devices that are placed in wind turbines and by adding transducers. Also, our SMARTCAST cloud diagnosis algorithms need to be improved. These technological improvements will allow us to roll out our solution on a global basis as we will differentiate ourselves from the competition as it will taken into account more data (not only vibration analysis), merge indicators, be cloud based rather than local and be more affordable. Based on our market research, we have forecasted the sales and defined a roadmap for commercialization, including the development of an innovative business model that will allow us to reach all target segments. CloudDiagnosis is of strategic interest to us as the next logical step in our growth.

Investments in energy efficiency in the residential sector (27% of EU final energy demand) may also provide economic benefits at different levels of the economy. These benefits may not be realized because of barriers, which are typically reflected in implied discount rates. BRISKEE (Behavioural Response to Investment Risks in Energy Efficiency) provides evidence-based input to energy efficiency policy design and evaluation, thereby supporting the market uptake of energy efficiency technologies in the EU residential sector. It contributes to the work programme by addressing the interrelations between microeconomic factors, sectoral energy demand and macroeconomic effects, relying on a consistent methodological framework implemented in 5 work packages: • Provide empirical evidence for the magnitudes of discount rates accounting for differences across households, technologies and countries, and assess their effects on the diffusion of efficiency technologies in the EU (micro-level). A multi-country survey (1000 interviews per country) will be carried out and analyzed econometrically. • Explore the impact of time discounting and risk preferences (and of policies affecting those factors) on the diffusion of energy efficient technology and energy demand in the EU residential sector until 2030 (meso-level). Established bottom-up vintage stock models will be employed for appliances (FORECAST-Residential) and for buildings (Invert/EE-Lab). • Explore the macro-level impacts of changes in microeconomic decision-making and of energy efficiency policy on employment, GDP and exports in the EU until 2030. This involves simulations with an established macro-economic model for the EU (ASTRA). • Provide evidence-based recommendations for key energy efficiency policies and input for impact assessments and policy analysis at the three levels of analysis. • Communicate and disseminate empirical findings to policy makers, national experts, the research community and the general public.

There are two types of wind turbines, a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) and a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). A HAWT has high efficiencies, but also high costs of materials, transportation, installation and maintenance. A VAWT has low efficiency, but lower costs of materials, transportation, installation and maintenance. In comparison, a VAWT also offers a subtler design with reduced shadow flicker, bird strike, and noise. However, due to the low efficiency of a VAWT, it is not an economically commercial method of producing renewable energy. AB Power has developed a technology to increase the efficiency of a VAWT close to that of a HAWT without sacrificing the cost savings. This has led to a far cheaper method of harnessing energy from the wind than ever before. Due to the affordability of the VAWT, it will have a dramatic impact on the fight against climate change. The technology being developed at AB Power will make renewable energy available to more customers than ever before. Through the growth of AB Power, there will be a direct relationship with the reduction of UK emissions.