Digitalization Of Critical Components in OFFshore wind turbines

ended

The main objectives of this proposal are to optimize the design, increase the performance rates and reduce the maintenance costs of critical components in offshore wind turbines, through the digitalization of specific critical components. Wind turbine OEMs and some components manufacturers have already started to implement sensors and data collection systems in the wind turbines they are providing and installing. However, efficient proven concepts have not been demonstrated yet, due to two main gaps or challenges to be overcome: - The technological gap: significant technology development and validation is still needed to achieve new products and services ready for commercialization. Sensors and remote monitoring systems are yet to be extensively implemented in offshore energy generation facilities, as they currently provide little information that may be used in advance to any incident. - The data access gap: access to the data collected from the wind energy turbines in operation is limited only to windfarm developers and OEMs. Therefore, most European components suppliers can not obtain, manage, analyze and learn from the performance data produced by their components in real-life operation, missing that way the opportunity to improve their competitiveness and increase the added-value of the products. DOCC-OFF focuses on addressing the technology gap in the pitch system digitalization and the real data availability for a reliable validation and demonstration process. Hence, the main challenge of the project will be to implement, validate and demonstrate sensors, remote monitoring system and big data analytics tools that will allow to obtain data from those critical components and to extract value out of them in order to deliver the defined objectives. The results of the project will have a relevant impact on the improvement of competitiveness of the DOCC-OFF partners, making offshore wind a competitive technology between other power generation alternatives.