Tuesday 13 November 2018

EU awards €1.4m to slash offshore wind material costs

The EU has awarded €1.4 million (£1.2m) for a research project aimed at slashing material costs of offshore wind turbines by up to 25%.

Swiss digital technology company Akselos and LICengineering are collaborating on the GODESS – or Global Opttimal DEsign of Support Structures – project to maximise efficiency in the design process of the turbines to ultimately help reduce costs for consumers.

The initiative will allow data collected by Akselos’ predictive digital twin technology during wind farm operations to be used to validate structural integrity and make the design process more efficient.

This is expected to enable turbine designers to make “better, more sustainable designs” – the firms say around 20,000 engineering hours are spent during the design phase of wind farm foundations.

Hans Jorgen Riber, R&D Director of LICengineering said: “GODESS, which is based on Akselos’ predictive digital twin technology combined with our plugins, will enable us to reduce the design period significantly for the increasingly complex support structures of offshore wind turbines.

“By combining increased simulation speed with cost-based design, we will be able to make an important step change in offshore wind development and reduce the cost of energy significantly.”