Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MAXBlade (Maximising tidal energy generation through Blade Scaling & Advanced Digital Engineering)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-01-01 bis 2024-06-30
There is 10 GW of predictable, high value tidal stream potential in European waters, with up to 100 GW of capacity globally . It is an entirely unharnessed resource, with just 13 MW currently deployed . The future commercial rollout of tidal stream energy, in line with the EU Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy and SET Plan targets, rests on five key pillars:
1. The ability to approach cost competitiveness with other low carbon technologies through aggressive technical innovation;
2. Addressing technology and component performance uncertainties and mature asset management which impacts on the sectors ability to raise affordable finance for wide scale rollout;
3. Cost reduction through volume manufacturing and supply chain capacity;
4. A pipeline of deployment opportunities; and
5. Consenting and environmental impact uncertainties including other sea-users.
MAXBlade has been developed to significantly advance these first three pillars with a focus on the entire blades use and end-use lifecycle, control, condition monitoring and asset management.
The project aims to reduce the levelized cost of energy of Orbital’s tidal technology by 20% through a 70% increase in the rotor swept area with a reliable, cost-optimised 13m length blade. This will increase yield by a site average of 22%, reducing the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) by 13% alone. MAXBlade will also implement advanced tidal blade condition monitoring for the first time, optimised array level control and integrated digital asset maintenance management, introduce circular economy principles into the tidal blade lifecycle and advance European leadership towards tidal turbine blade delivery.
1. The ability to approach cost competitiveness with other low carbon technologies through aggressive technical innovation;
2. Addressing technology and component performance uncertainties and mature asset management which impacts on the sectors ability to raise affordable finance for wide scale rollout;
3. Cost reduction through volume manufacturing and supply chain capacity;
4. A pipeline of deployment opportunities; and
5. Consenting and environmental impact uncertainties including other sea-users.
MAXBlade has been developed to significantly advance these first three pillars with a focus on the entire blades use and end-use lifecycle, control, condition monitoring and asset management.
The project aims to reduce the levelized cost of energy of Orbital’s tidal technology by 20% through a 70% increase in the rotor swept area with a reliable, cost-optimised 13m length blade. This will increase yield by a site average of 22%, reducing the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) by 13% alone. MAXBlade will also implement advanced tidal blade condition monitoring for the first time, optimised array level control and integrated digital asset maintenance management, introduce circular economy principles into the tidal blade lifecycle and advance European leadership towards tidal turbine blade delivery.
Considerable progress has been made in identifying the key failure models of most concern for the design of the ultimate blade and executing a test programme to address this concerns. Full scale static and fatigue testing planning parameters has been developed. The material testing programme will be executed in both thermoset and thermoplastic resin to confirm future applicability of more recyclable materials for blade manufacture.
A cost optimised initial blade design has been completed with detailed design underway. 4 separate optimised designs were developed for 20, 22, 24 and 26m rotor diameters. Chord, twist and thickness profiles have been compared and opportunities for commonality identified. The work to date has focussed on a customisable blade that can be configured to either 24m or 26m rotor size.
Considerable progress has been made in advancing the state of the art of blocked flow and wake effect understanding by building and assessing differing high fidelity CFD model of the rotors in blocked flow to understand the effectiveness of each model and the behaviour of the wake in the blocked flow. Based on the results, an analytical model has been built to characterise the wake and the effect of blockage on wake development. This has been developed to python programme language and is currently being incorporated into existing design tools.
An initial baseline assessment of the current Orbital blade LCA was conducted. Work has commenced on the LCA of the project innovations, with a first-pass model of the larger blade prepared, based on preliminary data. This will be refined as the project progresses.
A tidal software module is being developed to support tidal stream asset operators finding the optimal maintenance window, plan tidal maintenance tasks and analyse data. Data is collected from various sources, combined, and transformed into usable information (e.g. algorithms to display tidal curves and other variables). This information helps the technical management of tidal arrays to optimally plan maintenance, reducing downtime and costs, and minimizing the risk to engineers working on tidal turbines.
A cost optimised initial blade design has been completed with detailed design underway. 4 separate optimised designs were developed for 20, 22, 24 and 26m rotor diameters. Chord, twist and thickness profiles have been compared and opportunities for commonality identified. The work to date has focussed on a customisable blade that can be configured to either 24m or 26m rotor size.
Considerable progress has been made in advancing the state of the art of blocked flow and wake effect understanding by building and assessing differing high fidelity CFD model of the rotors in blocked flow to understand the effectiveness of each model and the behaviour of the wake in the blocked flow. Based on the results, an analytical model has been built to characterise the wake and the effect of blockage on wake development. This has been developed to python programme language and is currently being incorporated into existing design tools.
An initial baseline assessment of the current Orbital blade LCA was conducted. Work has commenced on the LCA of the project innovations, with a first-pass model of the larger blade prepared, based on preliminary data. This will be refined as the project progresses.
A tidal software module is being developed to support tidal stream asset operators finding the optimal maintenance window, plan tidal maintenance tasks and analyse data. Data is collected from various sources, combined, and transformed into usable information (e.g. algorithms to display tidal curves and other variables). This information helps the technical management of tidal arrays to optimally plan maintenance, reducing downtime and costs, and minimizing the risk to engineers working on tidal turbines.
The project is still in the early stages and results beyond state of the art are still emerging. Results beyond state of the art are expected in blade design, blade scale, blade condition monitoring, wake and blockage effect modelling and design