The Azimut project partners have completed their applied research activities to develop an offshore wind turbine by 2020 with a unit capacity of 15MW.
The Gamesa-led €30.3m project brings together the efforts of 11 Spanish companies and 22 research centres, including Acciona Windpower, Alstom Wind, Acciona Energía, Iberdrola Renovables, Ingeteam, Imatia, Ingeciber, Digsilent Iberica, Técnicas Reunidas and Tecnitest.
As part of the research activities, the parties have gained an understanding of key areas, primarily in developing new technologies, testing process and models, and creating a new web application.
Gamesa has developed a new resin with improved properties for the manufacture of blades as well as a coating, Bladeshield, with anti-icing properties.
Acciona Windpower has undergone revision of various concepts for multi-megawatt wind turbines, and compared cost, weight and performance of the variants, while Alstom Wind was involved in the characterisation and validation of profiles for large offshore blades, while Acciona Energía unveiled several simulation tools.
In collaboration with Acciona Energía and the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of Cantabria, Iberdrola Renovables worked to develop a methodology and software tool to predict the short-term progress of the biohazard spill produced by offshore wind farms.
Ingeteam developed control algorithms for multiphase machines, in addition to filing two patents on multilevel conversion topologies.
To help experts design offshore O&M plans, Imatia developed statistical analysis and simulation techniques and generated algorithms, while Ingeciber worked on new mathematical models and existing CAE tools, to analyse offshore structures.
Digsilent Iberica launched its GridCode V2, which incorporates algorithms such as the Prony analysis for oscillation mode detection and ultimate model validation methods.
In addition to this, a new application, The Web Application for Grid Code Tracking, has been designed and developed, to help store specific offshore requirements.
Técnicas Reunidas demonstrated a new energy storage technology based on a zinc / air flow battery to increase wind energy penetration and create new insights on electrodes, membranes and electrolytes for zinc / air batteries, while Tecnitest worked to optimise a waterless/liquidless coupling for inspections using ultrasonic techniques (UT) for towers.
