• Energy Research
• OA Publications Mandate: Yes close
• 2018 close

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.

Offshore Kinetics (OK), an innovative Norwegian SME, has developed a game changing offshore floating wind turbine support structure that will optimise installation, commissioning, operation (maintenance) and decommissioning of wind farms. OKs patented column, stabilization tank, universal joint and anchor provides an effective “all in one” deployment of wind turbines. The concept is considerably more cost efficient than the leading models on floating wind turbines in the world today, and will reduce both Capex an Opex of wind farms. Offshore Kinetics’ overall objective is to upscale, demonstrate, and commercialize our patented Wind Turbine Support Structure (WTSS) solution in the offshore wind market

High electricity prices and the lowering costs of renewable technologies and energy storage are leading European energy consumers towards a distributed generation and self-consumption model. Electricity consumers are progressively turning into prosumers (producers & consumers) who decide at a given moment whether to buy electricity from the grid, to self-consume or even to export it to the grid. Moreover, European energy regulations require EU consumers to commit to clean and energy efficient objectives. For instance, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive requires all new buildings to be nearly zero-energy (NZEB) by the end of 2020 by reducing energy consumption and using renewable sources and all new public buildings to be NZEB by 2018. The most extended renewable energy in the world is wind power. However, wind power is not very common in urban areas where high speed laminar wind turns into a low speed turbulent one due to the existence of obstacles (buildings, houses, trees, structures, etc.). Traditional wind power turbines are not designed to work with low speed wind (2 m/s – 6m/s) and turbulent wind flows. Besides, traditional SWTs entail other serious problems such as the hazard of rotating machinery, vibrations, noise, the possibility of collapse atop buildings, blade shedding and visual impact. EOLI FPS is a patented rooftop vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) specifically designed to work under low speed and turbulent wind profiles such as the existing in urban environments. EOLIS FPS works perfectly with horizontal laminar wind but also take advantage of turbulent flows that adversely affect traditional wind turbines. Its internal rotor design facilitates the creation of vortexes out of the wind turbulence that drastically increases the driving force of the laminar wind. Besides EOLI FPS is safe, noiseless, does not vibrate and integrates aesthetically in the urban landscape.

SDHp2m stands for ‘Solar District Heating (SDH)’ and actions from ‘Policy to Market’. The project addresses market uptake challenges for a wider use of district heating and cooling systems (DHC) with high shares of RES, specifically the action focuses on the use of large-scale solar thermal plants combined with other RES in DHC systems. The key approach of the project is to develop, improve and implement in 9 participating EU regions advanced policies and support measures for SDH. In 3 focus regions Thuringia (DE), Styria (AT) and Rhone-Alpes (FR) the regulating regional authorities are participating as project partners to ensure a strong implementation capacity within the project. In 6 follower regions from BG, DE, IT, PL, SE the regulating authorities are engaged through letters of commitment. The project activities aim at a direct mobilization of investments in SDH and hence a significant market rollout. The project work program in the participating regions follows a process including 1) strategy and action planning based on a survey, best practices and stakeholder consultation 2) an implementation phase starting at an early project stage and 3) efficient dissemination of the project results at national and international level. Adressed market uptake challenges are: Improved RES DHC policy, better access to plant financing and business models, sustained public acceptance and bridging the gap between policy and market through market support and capacity building. Denmark and Sweden reached already today a high share of RES in DHC and shall be used as a role model for this project. The direct expected outcome and impact of SDHp2m is estimated to an installed or planned new RES DHC capacity and new SDH capacity directly triggered by the project until project end corresponding to a total investment of 350 Mio. € and leading to 1 420 GWh RES heat and cold production per year. A multiple effect is expected in the period after the project and in further EU regions.

Sistema Eólico Morcillo is a Spanish SME specialized in the development, construction and sales of innovative medium power wind turbine systems. We have developed and patented a disruptive multi-award winning wind turbine technology called INNOWIND. By 2050, the EU-28 aims to achieve CO2 emissions cuts of 80-95% compared to 1990 levels and to achieve a 20% share for renewable energy sources in its overall energy consumption by 2020. This requires a process of "decarbonising" Europe's economy, including the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies. Wind energy and Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy have been the leading sources of low carbon electricity generation in EU since 2011. The installation of wind turbines is characterized by very high construction costs that amortize slowly over the years through the sale of electricity to the grid. The amount of energy produced depends mainly on the nominal power of the installed generator and of the amount of wind that can be used. INNOWIND offers cost-effective mid-power wind turbine farms, with high flexibility in terms of size and area of construction, with low security requirements and no special construction permits required, making implementation in urban areas a possibility. INNOWIND offers for the first time the opportunity to make use of terrain not suitable for conventional wind farming. Furthermore, thanks to the easy scaling of the units from 50kW to 1000kW, it is possible to cater the specific power needs in a wider range of use-cases and scenarios. Other unique selling points include less visual and environmental impacts, safer in case of storm or fire damage,

In recent years, research has shown that energy savings resulting from energy efficiency improvements have wider benefits for the economy and society such as increases in employment, GDP, energy security, positive impacts on health, ecosystems and crops or resource consumption. In order to develop more cost-effective energy efficiency policies and optimised long-term strategies in the EU, these multiple benefits have to be accounted for more comprehensively in the future. Although this field of research is growing, the findings are disperse and mostly have important gaps regarding geographic, sectorial or technical measure coverage and findings vary largely. This makes a consideration of multiple benefits in policy making and policy evaluation difficult today. The proposed project addresses these issues and aims at closing the identified gaps by five central research innovations: 1) data gathering on energy savings and technology costs per EU country for the most relevant 20 to 30 energy efficiency measures in the residential, commercial, industrial and transport sectors, 2) developing adequate methodologies for benefit quantification, monetisation and aggregation, 3) quantifying the most important multiple benefits and where adequate, monetising, 4) developing an openly available calculation tool that greatly simplifies the evaluation of co-impacts for specific energy efficiency measures to enable decision-making and 5) developing a simple online visualisation tool for customisable graphical analysis and assessment of multiple benefits and data exportation. Project outcomes can thus directly be used by stakeholders and will help to define cost-effective policies and support policy-makers and evaluators in the development and monitoring of energy efficiency strategies and policies in the future.

The project arises from a joint venture between Enair Energy SL and Lancor 2000 S Coop to develop a Cost efficient Small Wind Turbine (SWT) of 40 kW rated capacity (ECIWIND®).Within the wind energy sector, the small wind power is growing: According to World Wind Energy Association the small wind power market is expected to increase massively, from 768 M€ in 2013 to 2517 M€ by 2020, at a CAGR of 22%.The main challenge of the small wind energy industry is to decrease its costs to push a socialisation of this renewable technology. Thus, this electricity generation will be more competitive in the energy market and independent of the subsidies. The European Commision highliths the importance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as small energy producers and the need to empower them to take up this role. Several european SMEs such as farms (200-400 kWh/day) and small industry (200- 450 kWh/day). In the case that these end users are located in areas where annual average wind velocity is higher than 5 m/s, small wind turbines in the 10-50 kW capacity is the best option to cover their energy needs. The acquisition and commissioning costs of SWT in this capacity range rounds 4000 €/kWh and have annual maintenance average costs of 1500 €/year depending on the configuration, which makes unaffordable the investment without government subsidies. The price reduction on this capacity range can be approached through the elimination of costly parts of current technologies as the Gearbox, and the optimization of the cost/performance of the rest of components.Enair and Lancor have therefore identified a business opportunity for SWT technologies and have developed a first prototype of ECIWIND® at 10 kW scale (free-gearbox with pitch control and permanent magnet generator SWT) that requires 50% less maintenance and decrease the price to end user installed in 40%, which entails an investment payback period <6 years without any government subsidy.

Energy storage technologies have long been a subject of great interest to both academia and industry. The aim of this project is to develop a novel, cost effective and high performance Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage System (LHTESS) for seasonal accumulation of solar energy in increased quantities. The major barrier for currently used Phase Change Materials (PCMs, organic and hydrated salts) is their very low heat conduction coefficient, low density, chemical instability and tendency to sub-cooling. Such inferior thermo-physical properties result in the LHTESS having large dimensions and not having a capacity to provide the necessary rate of heat re-charge and discharge, even with highly developed heat exchangers. The new approach to overcome the above issues is the deployment of low grade, eutectic low melting temperature metallic alloys (ELMTAs). The ELMTAs are currently produced for application in other areas and have not been actively considered for the thermal energy accumulation with the exception of very limited studies. Their heat conduction is two orders of magnitude greater than that of conventional PCMs, they are stable and provide the thermal storage capacity which is 2-3 times greater per unit of volume. The project consists of both theoretical and experimental investigations. A range of low grade ELMTAs for application in LHTESS will be selected and Differential Scanning Calorimetry will be used to measure their thermal properties. Thermal cycling tests of such alloys will be conducted. Numerical investigations of heat transfer and flow in the LHTESS with ELMTAs will be performed. Experimental studies of heat transfer and flow in a laboratory prototype of the LHTESS with ELMTAs will be conducted. As outcomes of investigations, dimensionless heat transfer correlations will be derived and design recommendations for a practical solar energy seasonal LHTESS with the low grade ELMTA will be produced for project industrial partner

A hybrid solar panel that maximises heat capture and electricity generation. Although solar panel technology is well established, commercial hybrid panels are a recent innovation. A typical PV panel transforms ~20% of incident solar irradiance into electricity – and a thermal panel several times that, into heat. Between the two, there are trade-offs; and the detailed economics – factoring in power prices and other heating costs, etc. – can be very complex. In the end, however, people/businesses need continuous electricity and regular hot water. There is clear need for a solution that delivers both: hence the development and uptake of hybrid panels. The battle is to establish technology (efficiency) leadership – which EndeF has achieved in ECOMESH: the most efficient panel ever built. At the core of the innovation is ECOMESH’s Transparent Insulating Cover (TIC) technology: an advanced heat recovery system which, using an inert gas layer, maximises heat capture. TIC also increases electricity generation by 15%, by cooling the PV cells to their optimum operating temperature.