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Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) and Aalborg University (AAU) in Denmark will lead the new i4Offshore research and development project focused on significantly reducing the cost of offshore wind power. Officially titled "Integrated Implementation of Industrial Innovations for Offshore Wind Cost Reduction," the project is supported by a European Union (EU) grant of nearly €20 million. The project will demonstrate and test new offshore wind power technologies, leading to solutions which will make consumers' electricity bills both lower and more environmentally-friendly compared to fossil fuel sources such as oil or coal or other renewable energy sources such as solar or hydropower. A total of 15 project partners are involved in the project (in addition to SGRE and AAU) and they are all experts in the offshore wind industry.
An enormous engineering puzzle will be assembled
The i4Offshore project, which is based on classical engineering disciplines such as structural analysis, geotechnical engineering, production and risk analysis, will test a complete installation of a future version of a full-scale Siemens Gamesa offshore turbine. A new 1,000-ton bucket foundation, a steel jacket, a concrete transition piece and a new cable connection will prove that the technology is reliable, and that production, transport, and installation can be done more cost effectively than today.
One of the challenges of offshore wind energy is that the high cost of building offshore wind turbines has necessitated various governmental subsidies to improve the business case. While all forms of industrial power generation receive governmental support, whether from renewable, fossil, or other sources, the project aims at making offshore wind energy even more cost-effective without external financial support.
The project aims to apply the advanced technologies to reduce the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) from offshore wind. The LCoE calculations show the total cost of electricity from a specific energy technology when all costs are included. But before the project reaches that goal, the various elements must prove that they can be integrated into an overall solution.
The culmination of over 15 years of research and development
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 818153. With this funding, the partners aim to bring the technology a step further and provide an even more solid foundation for the creation of future offshore wind power plants around the world.
Minimal environmental footprint
Furthermore, the project will test installation solutions with a minimal environmental footprint. The bucket foundation can be installed virtually noise-free as installation takes place via suctioning into the seabed instead of being hammered down from above.
Keywords: Siemens Gamesa, Aalborg University, Project Collaboration, Offshore Wind Power, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE), ARC Advisory Group