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Projects regarding:
Wind farm design

• Benchmark of innovative O&M propositions for far and large offshore wind farms  ▼ Framework to evaluate costs and benefits for innovative O&M propositions for far and large offshore wind farms - building on existing experience and service contracts - enabling taking these onboard in projects in an early phase. More information » 
• Blade Load Monitoring based on Fiber Optic Measurements (BLM-FO)  ▼ Development of a monitoring system which includes automatic data processing as a useful tool for maintenance planning and estimation of remaining life time. The suitability of the fiber optic based measurement system for Individual Pitch Control will be examined. More information » 
• Design of Offshore Wake Model Validation Project  ▼ Design study for test cases that will help to validate wake models by comparing them to measured data at Prinses Amalia Windpark. More information » 
• DUWIND’s far offshore wind farm design PhD’s  ▼ Five Ph.D. projects on five correlated topics: 1. Far-offshore wind climate models; 2. Interaction between near-wake en far-wake models; 3. Wind farm management with 'distributed fault detection' for far-offshore wind farms; 4. Designing wind farms optimizing availability; 5. Software tool voor conceptual design of offshore wind farms. More information » 
• Flight Leader concept for cost-efficient load monitoring and O&M optimisation  ▼ ECN, in cooperation with Statoil, will proof the feasibility of cost-efficient load monitoring using the Flight Leader concept for optimization and cost-reduction of O&M of (far-)offshore wind farms. More information » 
• Met-ocean buoy with LiDAR  ▼ The goal of this project is to develop and test a cost efficient offshore measurement solution as alternative for expensive fixed met-masts. A floating platform that hosts equipment for meteo- and hydrodynamic data collection, i.e. a met-ocean buoy with LiDAR. The measured meteo- and hydrodynamic data will be sent to shore to be stored and presented via a web based user interface. More information » 
• Meteo dashboard execution phase  ▼ Meteo Dashboard will be an integrated software system that collects, stores and presents measured and forecasted meteo- and hydrodynamic data for decision making of maintenance activities in an offshore wind farm. The gathered data can also be used for optimization of future wind farms. More information » 
• Meteo Dashboard for cost effective operation of offshore wind farms  ▼ Feasibility study improving the cost effective operation of offshore wind farms by collecting real-time meteorological data. More information » 
• Meteo Dashboard Validation Phase  ▼ Meteo Dashboard will be an integrated software system that collects, stores and presents measured and forecasted meteo- and hydrodynamic data for decision making of maintenance activities in an offshore wind farm. The gathered data can also be used for optimization of future wind farms. More information » 
• Operation & Maintenance Cost Estimator (OMCE)  ▼ In the proposal both RWE and ECN intend making the OMCE baseline model ready for application in an offshore wind farm and assess the contribution in realisation of cost reductions. More information » 
• Optimizing cable installation and operation, a life cycle perspective  ▼ Development of techniques and related equipment to optimize cable installation, protection, monitoring and IRM. More information » 
• Simulation of Wind Farm Aerodynamics  ▼ Create a tool for design of turbines in a wind farm and for development of algorithms for wake control, based on turbine response calculation with time-related modelling of wake interaction. More information » 
• Wind Farm Wake Modelling, Fatigue Loads and Control  ▼ Development of tools to optimize the design and control of Far Offshore Wind Farms taking into account the site conditions and grid demands. More information » 

Projects regarding:
Support structures

• Alternative foundation connection  ▼ Investigation of offshore-welded connections in monopiles. More information » 
• Alternative foundation installation  ▼ Alternative drilling and vibrating will be validated by certifying body and potentially tested on land. More information » 
• Concrete Gravity Base Substructure  ▼ Proof that a concrete GBS is a technically feasible and economically advantageous alternative foundation for far and large offshore wind farms. More information » 
• Design of a full scale prototype concrete monopile, including the design for (pre)fabrication, handling and drilled installation offshore and including certification  ▼ This project is a follow up of the ‘Alternative foundation installation’ project (onshore scale tests driving, drilling, vibrating) and a forerunner of the actual Full Scale Offshore Test of one or more Concrete Drilled Monopiles including a wind turbine to prove that the use of (prefabricated) concrete monopiles is more cost effective than steel monopiles at least for larger diameters and above a certain number of piles in one project. More information » 
• Free Hanging Cables  ▼ The aim of the integral foundation design for the Eneco Luchterduinen offshore wind farm is to reduce the overall costs. One of the optimisations of the foundation design that has been identified is applying free hanging cables inside the monopile. More information » 
• Industrialize Installation  ▼ Design, testing & verification of monohull installation concept focusing on industrialized deployment of support structures. More information » 
• Installation methods for use of an underwater noise mitigation screen in conjunction with pile driving from a floating vessel and from a jack-up  ▼ IHC will develop an efficiënt installation method for the application of the Noise Mitigation Screen of IHC (see project Under water noise mitigation during pile driving). More information » 
• Optimize turbine (-blade) installation  ▼ Development of techniques and equipment to improve installation of turbines, especially turbine blades, (faster and/or in significant higher wind speeds, at any installation angle). Prototype testing onshore, preferably offshore, is foreseen. More information » 
• Numerical Simulation of the Installation of Vibratory and Impact Driven Piles  ▼ NS-VIP on the vibratory installation of monopiles as an alternative to impact driving. Numerical simulation of the vibratory and impact driven pile installation process and subsequent load tests including validation of the simulations with VIBRO project results to generalise the results for locations with different soil conditions. Cooperation with the VIBRO-project run by RWE Innogy and co-financed by the Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator (UK). More information » 
• Raised Flange Connection  ▼ This project is about an alternative method for the grouted connection; an extended monopile with a raised flange. The necessary secondary steel will be installed on-site, after the monopile has been installed. This project covers feasibility studies, the design, the implementation and certification of the flanged connection. The desired results are a number of reports that prove the concept is feasible, to provide sufficient engineering detail to apply this connection at the Luchterduinen wind farm, and certification of the concept. More information » 
• Scour protection study  ▼ Assessing the impact of scour at monopile foundations and investigation of alternative methods and materials. More information » 
• Support structures for far and large offshore wind farms  ▼ Ph.D. project developing a new monopile design for a 5-6 MW wind turbine in water depths up to 50 m. More information » 
• Support Structure  ▼ Design and Analysis of Full Truss Support Structures to cover the water depth range of bottom founded structures. Feasibility study on floating support structure to define the break-even point.  Optimization of 2B6-beta towards 2B6-gamma. More information » 
• Silence: Underwater noise from offshore pile driving  ▼ A Ph.D. project building a numerical model simulating the generation of underwater noise during pile driving and assessing the effectiveness on possible mitigating measures. More information » 
• Slip joint  ▼ Development of certified design and testing of a steel-to-steel connection between monopile and transition piece. More information » 
• Tools: Integrated design tools development for large number of varied structural configurations  ▼ A Ph.D. project developing tools for a developing integrated combinations of wind turbine and support structure, taking into account fabrication and installation optimization. More information » 
• Under water noise mitigation during pile driving  ▼ IHC will build en test a full scale prototype of a steel screen that will serve to screen off the underwaternoise during piledriving. This noise mitigation screen (NMS) will be tested during piledriving of the RWE metmast monopole foundation. More information » 

Projects regarding:
Electrical systems and grid integration

• Dynamic Power Management  ▼ This project aims to reduce cost of energy by introducing an integral approach on the combined system of wind farm and grid connection. More information » 
• Smart regulation for far and large offshore wind integration  ▼ This project bridges the technology and regulation of offshore wind energy integration by analyzing the institutional preconditions that support the building and operation of these innovative power systems. More information » 
• System Stability Impacts: Grid Code Trade-off Analysis  ▼ This project aims to develop a tool for grid code trade-off analysis for the connection of far and large offshore wind farms to national and transnational grids. More information » 
• Wind Farm electrical system design and optimization  ▼ ECN and TUD will build a model for the optimization of the electrical infrastructure and for selecting the appropriate cable technology for (far) offshore wind farms. This will be applied for 2-B Energy and XEMC Darwind testcases More information » 

Projects regarding:
Turbine development

• 2BE Umbrella Project 2013  ▼ A collection of work packages on various subjects, which include the integrated transformer station, vortex analysis on jacket structure and installation process analysis. More information » 
• Advanced Controller Optimization  ▼ The control system of the 2-B turbine, which has specific demands as it should suit a 2 bladed design and offshore conditions, is further developed and made suitable for individual pitch control. More information » 
• Application of Advanced Design Tools to a 3 bladed offshore wind turbine  ▼ The main objective of this work is to reduce Costs of Energy by: 1. Using advanced control strategies for active loads reduction, and 2. Using advanced integrated design approach for (automated) design optimization. More information » 
• CDTup, Control Design Tool Upgrade  ▼ ECN will modify the Control Design Tool (CDT), which is currently usable for 3-bladed turbines, to be useable for 2-bladed turbines and will add new developed control strategies. More information » 
• Controller Optimization for 6MW 2 Bladed Offshore Wind Turbine  ▼ 2-B Energy will build an algorithm to be able to quickly and efficiently test algorithms for their turbine control system. More information » 
• Design Tools & Modelling Improvement  ▼ ECN will make the ECN design-simulation models applicable for calculation of (dynamic) loads by wind and waves in more severe far-offshore conditions, which will result that the integral construction can be designed with smaller uncertainties. More information » 
• Extension Optimized 5 MW XD-WTG: Improved design and O&M  ▼ The project is an extension of the “Optimized 5 MW XD-WTG project”. It focuses on improvement of the design and O&M strategy based on methods and standards of other successful industries, aiming for better reliability, performance and lower risks, leading to lower Cost of Energy. More information » 
• Improvement of advanced design tools  ▼ Using advanced control strategies for active loads reduction, and developing and verifying advanced integrated design tools for increased accuracy in load predictions. More information » 
• Improved Offshore Wave Load Simulation  ▼ This project aims to reduce Cost of Energy by providing designers with a validated tool for improved wave and current load analysis on individual offshore support structure members. More information » 
• Increase Rotor Diameter  ▼ 2-B Energy will investigate the increase of rotor diameter aiming to achieve an increase in annual energy production with approximatly 6%, compared to 140 m diameter, for a wind turbine class II site (average speed = 8.5m/s) using similar Nacelle Assembly as the 2B6 design. More information » 
• Integrated design of far large offshore wind farm  ▼ A Ph.D. project developing an efficient calculation method for simultaneous optimalization of the (active) controller and the (aeroelastically tailored) contruction of a 2-bladed wind turbine. More information » 
• Mastering electro-mechanical dynamics of direct drive generators for large wind turbines  ▼ A Ph.D. project modelling the electromagnetic behaviour of of (the generators and drive-train of) direct drive wind turbines and validating these models in experimental tests. More information » 
• Optimizing the cost of energy of the XD offshore wind turbine  ▼ Optimization of yield, operational performance and cost enabled by the application of advanced control algorithms, and the realization of cost-effective O&M adds including HSE compliance for the XD115 5MW offshore wind turbine. More information » 
• Smart Turbine  ▼ The impact of a much more detailed control of blade loads by applying flaps distributed along the blade, on the offshore wind turbine with respect to loads, safety, reliability is analyzed, and the reduction in cost of energy is determined by a conceptual design of a Smart Turbine. More information » 
• Stall  ▼ Two Ph.D projects investigating the possibility of replacing pitch by (a robust combination of) active and passive stall. More information » 
• Upgrade to 140 meter rotor diameter on a two-bladed downwind turbine  ▼ The 2B6 turbine was developed with active stall control and a 130m rotor diameter. In this project an increase in rotor diameter to 140m will be investigated under the application of IPC will be investigated under the application of IPC (see P201101_002_2BE) and at similar component weights. More information » 
• XEMC Darwind Next Generation offshore wind turbine (7-8 MW)  ▼ XEMC Darwind (XD) has developed the  XD115 5MW direct drive offshore WTG , now being upgraded to the  Optimized 5MW XD offshore wind turbine  having an improved cost of energy performance utilizing IPC. For the longer term (2017-2018) a larger WTG in the range of range 7-8 MW is required to further lower the cost of energy for offshore wind. Therefore, XEMC Darwind will start the development of a  ‘Next Generation’ offshore WTG . More information » 

Projects regarding:
Societal R&D Lines

• Risk, Cost & Benefit Assessment of FLOW Innovation Program  ▼ The Project Office of FLOW will ask an independent subcontractor to develop a model in order to quantify  the contributions of FLOW - projects to the cost reduction   of offshore wind energy. More information »