• Energy Research
• OA Publications Mandate: Yes close
• 2016 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.

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.

To achieve a thorough investigation for defect presence on a wind turbine blade, close inspection is required. This implies either trained staff tied with ropes on the blade or dismantling and transferring the blade in a workshop environment. While blade dismantling is scarcely used because it requires very long downtime, human inspection also involve a relatively high delay. A solution to this problem is to utilize specially designed platforms that can reach the blade and implement faster inspections on site. However, current systems are not very agile or cannot reach close enough to the blade in order to use a high quality nondestructive technique. Hence, they are mostly used to carry out mere visual inspections. To deal with the aforementioned challenge, our team will commercialize WInspector. WInspector consists of an agile robotic platform able to climb up the wind turbine tower and deploy an advanced Digital Shearography kit that carries out the inspection of a blade at a depth of up to 50mm. Users of WInspector benefit through early detecting emerging defects unseen in a visual inspection performed by competing solutions, with a significantly lower downtime for the WTB, and free of dangerous human labor. We have tested and validated the capabilities of WInspector in relevant environment and based on feedback received by wind farm operators, including project participant Gamesa and Iberdola (who has supported us in writing for this application), we are now ready to take the next steps and complete product development allowing us to bring WInspector into the market. Our vision is to grow our businesses by €19.88 million in gross sales by 2023 and keep growing at 58.8% annually from 2023 onwards. Through our business growth, we will create 181 new jobs. It is our strong belief that the Fast Track to Innovation Pilot is the ideal financial instrument for us to accelerate the procedures required for commercialization.

In ELICAN, a strong team of complementary European companies with worldwide leading presence in the Wind Energy industry join forces to provide the market with a disruptive high-capacity and cost-reducing integrated substructure system for deep offshore wind energy. The technology is exceptionally fitted to meet the technical and logistical challenges of the sector as it moves into deeper locations with larger turbines, while allowing for drastic cost reduction. This project will design, build, certify and fully demonstrate in operative environment a deep water substructure prototype supporting Adwen’s 5MW offshore wind turbine, the be installed in the Southeast coast of Las Palmas (Canary Islands). It will become the first bottom-fixed offshore wind turbine in all of Southern Europe and the first one worldwide to be installed with no need of heavy-lift vessels. The revolutionary substructure consists in an integrated self-installing precast concrete telescopic tower and foundation that will allow for crane-free offshore installation of the complete substructure and wind turbine, thus overcoming the constraints imposed by the dependence on heavy-lift vessels. It will allow for a full inshore preassembly of the complete system, which is key to generate a highly industrialized low-cost manufacturing process with fast production rates and optimized risk control. The main benefits to be provided by this ground-breaking technology are: • Significant cost reduction (>35%) compared with current solutions. • Direct scalability in terms of turbine size, water depth, infrastructure and installation means. • Complete independence of heavy-lift vessels • Excellently suited for fast industrialized construction. • Robust and durable concrete substructure for reduced OPEX costs and improved asset integrity. • Suitable for most soil conditions, including rocky seabeds. • Enhanced environmental friendliness regarding both impact on sea life and carbon footprint.

The aim of the EK200-AWESOME project is to bring the EK200 to market - an integrated 100 kW container based airborne wind energy (AWE) converter and storage solution catering to off-grid applications and mobile end-uses. The EK200 can be deployed stand-alone or in arrays. The EK200 could also shape the future for AWE and provide basis and principles for up-scaled MW units Motivation The EK200 will add to renewables’ part of the energy-mix and support off-grid micro-grids providing distributed and diverse power sources for geographically remote communities or industrial activities Solution The physical height of conventional wind turbines is limited by the enormous stresses on the structure and by mechanical resonance phenomena. The EK200 will replace the most effective part of a conventional wind turbine, the tip of the rotor blade, by a tethered kite - operating economically even at low-wind onshore locations. USPs: * Low Cost of Secure Energy: Ultra high capacity factors, yielding > 5,000 full load hours pa * Portability and minimal interference: Less than 5% of the material resources used in a conventional wind mill with the same yield * Uninterrupted Power Supply: Tapping into stable and abundant high altitude winds * Ease of Maintenance: Least amount of moving airborne parts in the industry * Flexibility in Operation: Portable units. Smart control technology Project Outputs Commercialization of the EK200 is a high risk/high reward action. As a result we are conducting a Feasibility Study, resulting in a complete Business Plan, taking a into account end-user needs, market analysis, cost assessment, IP validation, pilot design and risk assessment - all feeding into our go-to-market strategy Opportunity High power reliability level and the need for an effective demand-response load management present a conducive ecosystem for off-grid to flourish. We seek to capture a share in this attractive market valued at EURbn 2.8 in 2014, growing to EURbn 6.3 in 2019

We have developed a resource-efficient and affordable bladeless Vortex wind generator. VORTEX Bladeless´ innovative wind turbine represent a true breakthrough in the wind energy market. The Vortex wind generator device represents a new paradigm of harnessing wind, with a new disruptive concept of a wind power generator without blades. VORTEX is able to capture the wind kinetic energy by 'vortex shedding', transforming it into electricity. The technology seeks to improve issues such as maintenance, amortization, noise, environmental impact, logistics and visual aspect, performing a secure, clean and efficient energy product, that is half cheaper than current small wind turbines (SWT). VORTEX make renewable energies, (replacement of PV, wind energy, combination of both) more financially accessible for our end-users: ESCOS, installation companies, businesses, home-owners, vessels, isolated housed, telecom station, etc. Clients will benefit from this new technology, especially in areas where solar energy does not perform well. Vortex has yielded excellent results and lots of industry and commercial interest. We have a 6-meter Vortex Bladeless wind turbine pilot in Spain, which generates up to 40% of energy solely from wind. The technology has been tested for scalability.. Our goal for Phase 2 is to scale-up and test a 2,75–meter version of the Vortex Wind Generator (providing 100W for future commercialization and massive market uptake. We want to achieve the goals of becoming the designer, manufacturer and seller of the first-ever bladeless wind generator for the Small Wind Market (SWM). Combing our patented and market-backed technology with improved properties, we want to reinvigorate the SWM - addressing EU 2020 energy targets - with our Vortex Bladeless wind generators, positioning us as leader of the sector. Our end-users will also see their pay-back returned within 5 years, thanks to its market-changing commercialization price

Solar Energy is the most abundant renewable energy source available for our Planet. Light energy conversion into chemical energy by photosynthetic organisms is indeed the main conversion energy step, which originated high energy containing fossil deposits, now being depleted. By the way, plant or algae biomass may still be used to produce biofuels, as bio-ethanol, bio-diesel and bio-hydrogen. Microalgae exploitation for biofuels production have the considerable advantages of being sustainable and not in competition with food production, since not-arable lands, waste water and industrial gasses can be used for algae cultivation. Considering that only 45% of the sunlight covers the range of wavelengths that can be absorbed and used for photosynthesis, the maximum photosynthetic efficiency achievable in microalgae is 10%. On these bases, a photobioreactor carrying 600 l/m-2 would produce 294 Tons/ha/year of biomass of which 30% to 80%, depending on strain and growth conditions, being oil. However this potential has not been exploited yet, since biomass and biofuels yield on industrial scale obtained up to now were relatively low and with high costs of production. The main limitation encountered for sustained biomass production in microalgae by sunlight conversion is low light use efficiency, reduced from the theoretical value of 10% to 1-3%. This low light use efficiency is mainly due to a combined effect of reduced light penetration to deeper layers in highly pigmented cultures, where light available is almost completely absorbed by the outer layers, and an extremely high (up to 80%) thermal dissipation of the light absorbed. This project aims to investigate the molecular basis for efficient light energy conversion into chemical energy, in order to significantly increase the biomass production in microalgae combining a solid investigation of the principles of light energy conversion with biotechnological engineering of algal strains.

Small onshore wind turbines have become increasingly accepted as an alternative to powering many homes, farms and businesses offering on-site electricity generation and increased security of energy supply. However, a number of barriers are preventing wide spread uptake: high cost; performance predictability issues; small wind currently fails to compete with low usage high retail electricity pricing without subsidisation from feed-in tariffs (FiT) or without a very high retail price of electricity. Governments are under immense political pressure to significantly reduce/cut subsidies for renewable technologies, creating a market for small wind which is increasingly unsustainable. To address the need for innovations that overcome principal barriers to small wind, this project seeks to advance Gaia- Wind’s innovative small wind turbine from a prototype demonstrated in a relevant environment (TRL6) to complete and qualified commercial prototype (TRL8). Gaia-Wind’s ‘FortyForty’ is the first low cost, highly efficient small wind turbine that can compete with the retail price of electricity globally and deliver an excellent ROI for customers, independent of financial subsidy. End-users include farms, rural land owners, investors, communities and rural businesses. Gaia-Wind has an existing and extensive customer base in these markets to ensure rapid roll out. Also targeted towards: residential, commercial and industrial, fish farms, hybrid systems, remote villages, pumping, water desalination and purification, remote monitoring, research and education, telecom base stations hospitals, College/Universities. Study Objectives: Technology and manufacturing process optimisation, market analysis, economic and business assessment, operational capacity analysis. Activities will be delivered within a 6 month period and result in a comprehensive feasibility report detailing the next steps towards development and commercialisation, forming the basis of the SMEI Phase 2 Business Plan.

Conventional wind turbines are dangerous for birds, animals and humans in their vicinity and produce harmful low frequency noise; they are made of composites with a considerable carbon footprint. In the project we will provide the first true ecological wind turbine in the world! The realization of the project will place on the market new paradigms in the world of small wind turbines in several ways and will fulfill the following objectives: New material: ECO-TURBINE turbine aerodynamic parts will be made with the revolutionary advanced technology of flax based bio composites and natural based adhesives with 70% less carbon foot print than conventional composites. New technical concept: ECO-TURBINE turbines will have completely new type of movement than conventional HAWT and VAWT wind turbines. Instead of rotational movement of propellers on round surface our solution has a lamella type rectangular »wall« of series of blades. New business/marketing model: ECO-TURBINE turbine will use technical concept of special under angle painted wind turbine as revolving advertising billboard, therefore our solution will be sold primarily as a very effective advertising billboard with additional function of eco and effective electricity generation. New possibility of placement: ECO-TURBINE turbines will be possible to place on areas where conventional turbines could not be placed due to danger (impact and low frequency pollution) to birds and humans or for aesthetic reasons. New revolutionary mechanical principle represent also a huge technological and business opportunity for use in the in hydro power generation for small hydro power plants in rivers and streams with low hydro flow. Patented ECO-TURBINE turbine solution represents a completely new concept that means third basic concept of wind turbines apart from HAWT and VAWT turbines and present attractive business opportunity. With feasibility study will be examined key areas needed for realization of the project.

The EU Agency for Safety & Health is currently amending wind turbine standards (such as EN 50308) to ensure safer O&M tasks and increase the Probability Of Detection (POD) for wind turbine defects. ISO have also identified such issues, and in fact initiated the development of QA standards specifically tailored for the Condition Monitoring (CM) of wind turbines. Current CM systems are intrusive, and hence revoke the initial OEM warranty of drive-train components. The combination of industrial and legislative factors is the key driver behind the production of CMDrive: a bespoke and non-intrusive acoustic-analysis CM system, having a POD for drive-train defects of 90-98% within the range of operating powers. The requested grant of €2.5m will be required to validate and enhance the system, and initiate the commercialisation process. Growth in the wind services sector, as related to O&M and CM, is also compelling, as studies by Deloitte have shown that the corresponding market is estimated to increase from €5.2b to €10.8b by 2020, with a CAGR of 10%. The first generation of CMDrive shall be produced for wind turbines of 2.5MW or less; a next generation product, to handle larger turbines, has already been envisioned. The commercialisation strategy involves the segmentation of the wind turbine market into 3 initial customer tiers, is targeting WFOs and Independent Service Providers of CM within such tiers, and will position the product through a number of Unique Selling Points, which will be elaborated further in this proposal. The locations of the 5 partners, in addition to the global outreach of TWI and INESCO, are critical factors for launching the product by 2019. It is expected that CMDrive’s associated revenue streams (sales, services, licensing) will yield an estimated ROI of 1100%, and corresponding cumulative profits of €26m, over the 5 year forecast (2019–2023). INESCO will take lead of the sales, with the other partners benefiting by means of profit shares.