Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TwingTec (Unlocking the Full Power of Wind)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2019-03-01 al 2019-06-30
There is an urgent need for renewable sourced electricity and carbon-free energy power systems. Despite significant technical development, wind turbine generators (WTG), which usually reach a maximum altitude of 100m, are still ineffective in tapping the energy that is available a few hundred meters above the ground where wind is stronger and provides greater power. The huge capital costs associated with the installation of the massive structure of WTG is a major limiting factor for unlocking the full power of wind and currently limits its market potential. As a result, polluting diesel gensets prevail as power systems in off-grid applications. Our main objective is to provide a ground-breaking Airborne Wind Energy system to displace diesel from the off-grid generation of electricity. TwingTec’s TT100 employs a flying tethered device (Twing) to reach high-altitude winds that provide much higher capacity factors, thereby avoiding all issues associated with WTG.
We have evaluated the project and the future commercialization of the TT100 from a technical, commercial and financial perspective. TT100 is the first mobile and containerized wind energy solution to produce carbon-free electricity with proprietary drone technology, with complete FTO and licensing opportunities. We have assessed the levelized cost of energy (LCOE = 100 €/MWh) of our solution and compared it with that of diesel (330 €/MWh) and other renewables. We have validated its market fit and devised the technical plan for the upscaling to meet the needs of electricity off-takers in off-grid applications, such as islanders, remote communities & industrial projects. We have communicated the project to key clients (utilities, independent power producers, wind turbine OEMs) and engaged stakeholders in the demo activities, so that we can leverage the project results (track record of operational hours and validation of performance parameters) in further commercialization.
In the long term, wind energy 2.0 will contribute to increase significantly the overall fraction of the global energy being produced by the wind and so help meet climate goals. In the short term, we expect the TT100 to have a huge socio-economic impact for people living in remote locations, such as islanders and indigenous communities: they will no longer be fully dependent on importing diesel, generate electricity locally, increase jobs in the consuming areas, and reduce energy-related CO2 emissions. Our estimations show that considering all the initial investment TwingTec will obtain revenues of €113M, ROI of 2.2 and generate 50 new jobs until 2026.