WIND ENERGY NETWORK MAGAZINE
Wind Energy Network Magazine published its latest issue of their magazines on the 30th of July 2020 including an article about INNTERESTING. "The increase in the share of renewables is essential to reach the EU climate and energy goals of producing at least 32% of the EU's energy from renewable sources by 2030, and wind turbines will play a significant role in this path. To achieve the target, it is necessary to act both on new wind turbines and on already installed ones, since a main proportion of the installed EU wind fleet's lifetime will come to the end between 2020/2030. FULL SCALE TESTING The current state-of-the-art in validation tests of wind turbine components requires full scale testing in ad-hoc test-benches. With wind turbines becoming larger and larger each year, there is a parallel need for increasingly larger test-benches -some examples are the recently built ones of ORE CATAPULT at its Blyth premises, or WINDBOX at the Basque Country- that in turn must carry out rather long testing campaigns. This process implies several relevant disadvantages in terms of testing time, costs of the specimens and energy consumption. DEVELOPMENT To tackle this challenge, INNTERESTING is working on the development of new concepts and technologies for larger turbines while also defining a new hybrid methodology to demonstrate the reliability of these systems without the need of building new large and expensive test-benches. The new methodology will be developed and validated through 3 different case studies (Figure 1) dealing with innovative pitch bearing concept (CS1), new gearbox component design (CS2) and innovative repairing solutions for the lifetime extension of pitch bearings (CS3). INNTERESTING gathers eight partners from Spain, Belgium and Finland: four R&D centres (IKERLAN, VTT, VITO and KU LEUVEN), two manufacturers of wind turbine components (LAULAGUN and MOVENTAS), one global player in the field of computer-aided engineering simulation (SIEMENS INDUSTRY SOFTWARE), and one non-profit industry-driven organization (BASQUE ENERGY CLUSTER). EXPECTATIONS ARE HIGH The impact is expected to be quite significant: Up to 70% cutting of product development direct costs, reducing time-to-market by 50%, a 40% increase in reliability and 25% lifetime extensions are the goals that INNTERESTING is expecting to achieve. This paradigm shift aims to contribute to strengthening the European industrial leadership in renewables by improving the competitiveness and market positioning of the European value chain." https://n9.cl/windenergynetworkmagazine
Keywords
Wind, Renewable, Energy, Test-bench