The PowerKite project will design, build and deploy a power take-off system (PTO) for novel tidal energy collector concept, the Deep Green subsea tidal kite. The overall objective of the PowerKite project is to gather experience in open sea conditions to enhance the structural and power performance of the PTO for a next generation tidal energy converter to ensure high survivability, reliability and performance, low environmental impact and competitive cost of energy in the (future) commercial phases. The core innovation of the project resides in the electro-mechanical design of the PTO, allowing the array to be deployed in sites with low velocity currents. The project will develop full-scale components of the turbine, generator, seabed power electronics, array transformer and subsea export cable. The project will also develop a new material for the mooring system (tether) combining the required buoyancy (to avoid the seafloor and the surface) with the appropriate modulus, strength and fatigue properties (to hold an oscillating load of 200 tons). Open sea trials will play a crucial role in the project as the deployment of the first full scale Deep Green prototype (funded via separate ERDF funding) will enable extensive offshore data collection for the PTO system. The Powerkite project has the potential to double the tidal power market potential, decrease the cost of energy with up to 60% and decrease the weight per installed MW at least 20 times compared to other tidal energy converters. The project has a budget of 5.1M Euros and gathers 9 partners from 3 countries. Over 30 months, the project will progress the state of the art in several fields: PTO modelling, electrical design, mechanical design, data acquisition, analysis and optimisation.

The need to reduce energy consumption and emissions to bring global warming to a halt is unprecedented. Although there are energy saving strategies, most innovations cannot simply be merged in conventional ship design. As the solution for making ships carbon neutral will likely come from the use of several energy sources, a clever energy management becomes a key element in a unified ship system. De-rating of engines combined with sailing at slower speed seems to be a relatively easy way to reduce fuel consumption and GHG emissions and will most likely be used in the industry. However, this does come with reduced transport work per ship and reduced earnings. In our view, most other savings methods can deliver savings up to about 15%, not the substantial savings that are required. OPTIWISE aims at two solutions that when combined go well beyond 30% when the innovations are delivered as proposed in this project: Wind propulsion with a rigorous, holistic optimised ship design, control and operation, including a change in conventional propeller propulsion. Wind propulsion is showing its potential in research and market introductions. The holistic ship design and operation pair well with that. For common ships there is much to be gained, especially with the increased freedom in the aft ship geometry with a shift to electric propulsion. Making best use of wind propulsion also requires a rethink of designs, control and operations. To meet the objectives of this call, generic tool and methodology development are planned for optimization, performance and energy management. New developments will be applied to 3 Demo cases, consisting of a Bulk Carrier, a Tanker and a Passenger Vessel. Verification of the results will be done by testing a rotor sail rig, model tests on two ships and Bridge simulations with crew training. By the end of this project it will be clear how much energy can be save with the latest sail propulsion systems for the three types of vessels investigated

Objectives: 1) to improve the observation and predictions of oil spreading in the sea using novel on-line sensors on-board vessels, fixed structures or gliders, and smart data transfer into operational awareness systems; 2) to examine the true environmental impacts and benefits of a suite of marine oil spill response methods (mechanical collection in water and below ice, in situ burning, use of chemical dispersants, bioremediation, electro-kinetics, and combinations of these) in cold climate and ice-infested areas; 3) to assess the impacts on biota of naturally and chemically dispersed oil, in situ burning residues and non-collected oil using biomarker methods and to develop specific methods for the rapid detection of the effects of oil pollution; 4) to develop a strategic Net Environmental Benefit Analysis tool (sNEBA) for oil spill response strategy decision making. A true trans-disciplinary consortium will carry out the project. Oil sensors will be applied to novel platforms such as ferry-boxes, smart buoys, and gliders. The environmental impacts of the oil spill response methods will be assessed by performing pilot tests and field experiments in the coastal waters of Greenland, as well as laboratory tests in Svalbard and the Baltic Sea with the main focus on dispersed oil, in situ burning residues and non-collected oil. The sNEBA tool will be developed to include and overarch the biological and technical knowledge obtained in the project, as well as integrate with operational assessments being based on expertise on coastal protection and shoreline response. This can be used in establishing cross-border and trans-boundary cooperation and agreements. The proposal addresses novel observation technology and integrated response methods at extreme cold temperatures and in ice. It also addresses the environmental impacts and includes a partner from Canada. The results are vital for the off-shore industry and will enhance the business of oil spill response services.

In the ORCELLE project we will develop and demonstrate a solution for wind as main propulsion. With wind as main propulsion we mean an energy efficiency gain of more than 50% as an average saving in full year operation. Under ideal sailing conditions the energy efficiency gains are close to 100%. Engines are only used in situations with insufficient wind resources, for manoeuvring and increased ship safety. ORCELLE builds on several large previous projects where we have worked to build simulation tools, wing systems and initial designs of a prototype vessel. In this project we combine improvements to the simulation framework and wing systems by building two physical demonstrators: A 1-wing retrofit (targeting 10% efficiency gains) and a multi-wing newbuilt demonstrator (targeting +50% efficiency gains overall). The demonstrators are RoRo (PCTC) vessels that will operate in a trans-Atlantic route transporting cars and other cargo. We have an extensive set of sensor systems onboard the ships which will allow them to function as research vessels to validate & improve designs, simulation tools and prototype designs of ship & wing systems. A tailored, dynamic weather routing software and service will be developed to optimize sailing performance. The project is a strong opportunity to combine the investments needed to get full scale demonstration and data capture with advanced models and tools for wing propulsion vessels. The project coordinator is Wallenius Wilhelmsen, a world leading RoRo logistics operator with some 130 RoRo vessels in global service. Beyond the demonstrator, we use the models and tools to develop advanced conceptual designs and operational plans for multiple vessel types: Tanker/bulk carriers, shortsea vessels, containerships, cruise and ferries. This forms the basis for our dissemination & exploitation work to enable a large-scale shift towards wind as the main propulsion on a very high percentage of vessels (relevant for 80%+ of the world fleet).