Objective The offshore wind market is a young and rapidly growing market, whose current project pipeline for 2025/30 would equal nearly 80 nuclear plants, mostly in Europe. The next decade and beyond may average 1,000 offshore towers/year worldwide, with an overall investment volume around 15-20.000 M€/year. This growing sector faces technological challenges, as it is set to move into deeper waters further offshore while being able to reduce the costs in order to reach a competitive LCOE (levelised cost of energy). For water depths above 40m (70% of the future market) approximately 40-50% of investment corresponds to the substructure (foundation and tower). Therefore a significant cost reduction in foundation/tower would drastically improve the overall cost of offshore wind energy. This project intends to develop and demonstrate in operative environment a full scale prototype of a revolutionary substructure system for offshore wind turbines. The concept consists in a self-installing precast concrete telescopic tower which for the first time ever shall allow for crane-free offshore installation of foundations, towers and turbines, thus overcoming the constraints imposed by the dependence on offshore heavy-lift vessels. It will allow for a full in-shore preassembly of the complete system, which is key to generate a highly industrialized manufacturing process with high production rates and optimized risk control. The main benefits expected are:• 30-40% cost reduction (both CAPEX and OPEX).• Large water depth applicability range for deep offshore (>45m water depth). • Supports increased turbine size (5-8MW).• Allows for large scale fast industrial deployment of foundations.• Reduces dependence on costly and scarce installation vessels.• Improved asset integrity (durability) This solution will imply a radical step forward for cost-effective and industrially deployable deep offshore wind. Fields of science engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringengineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energywind powerengineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors Keywords Off-shore wind energy craneless installation Programme(s) H2020-EU.3.3. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy Main Programme H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument Topic(s) SIE-01-2014 - Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for a low carbon energy system Call for proposal H2020-SMEInst-2014-2015 See other projects for this call Sub call H2020-SMEINST-2-2014 Funding Scheme SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2 Coordinator ESTEYCO SA Net EU contribution € 2 497 862,50 Address Calle menendez pidal 17 28036 Madrid Spain See on map SME The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed. Yes Region Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 1 077 578,96
