Solutions for reduced maintenance, increased reliability and extended life-time of off-shore wind turbines/farms

Offshore wind turbines, both fixed bottom and floating, are subject to high loads in form of vibrations from wind and waves, as well as from rotation of the turbines. The focus is to reduce the need for maintenance of wind turbines/farms and to develop measures for life-time extension, demonstrating innovative solutions and tools, and thereby the levelised cost of wind energy. The action can include the development of tools for doing predictive maintenance, hereunder models of component/soil degradation, and establishment a database with operational and failure data for validation of tools. The actions should consider not only the wind turbines but also the substructure and the soil conditions.

Participation of wind turbine manufacturers and large wind farm operators is expected.

TRL 7 shall be achieved at the end of project activities (please see part G of the General Annexes).

Opening the project's test sites, pilot and demonstration facilities, or research infrastructures for practice oriented education, training or knowledge exchange is encouraged.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 7 to 10 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts

The challenge is to achieve a very substantial reduction in Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs through new O&M and control concepts, including logistics planning, decision making and operation, providing an optimized balance between maximizing generation and minimizing loads on the turbines, and reducing the number of inspections and repairs with more remote monitoring and operations.

The action will result in the reduction of component failure and increased reliability. The development of innovative solutions and tools will result in more reliable wind turbines and plants. It is expected that the output of the project will significantly contribute to an improved performance for new and operating off-shore wind power plants and therefore to the cost of energy. Presented tools and solutions might have an exploitation potential in the onshore wind sector. The action should contribute to the strengthening the European industrial technology base, thereby creating growth and jobs in Europe.