The next generation of large offshore wind energy generators and tidal power generators needs improvements to solve challenges related to materials, coatings and multi-material architectures to increase operational performance and allow an appreciable reduction of the overall cost: capital expenditure, running and maintenance costs. Offshore energy functional and structural components are subjected to numerous damage mechanisms, which concern both materials and coatings. Corrosion and fatigue turned out to be the main mechanisms of deterioration in offshore structures where severe environmental factors affect such as extended periods of wetness, UV-radiation, abrasion and erosion which could eventually accelerate corrosion rates. Moreover, wind turbine blade leading-edge erosion is one of the key challenges in the offshore wind industry as it can reduce the annual energy production by 4% to 20%. This would equate to a loss in productivity worth between 152 and 760 million € a year across the whole European offshore wind sector. In addition to productivity loss due to repair operations, the maintenance is difficult and the cost is extremely high due to several factors, including the logistics of getting men and materials to the job site, but also due to the limited access to the structures due to offshore weather conditions. Operations and Maintenance account for approximately 25% of the costs of offshore wind farms. In this situation, durability of materials used to protect these types of infrastructures should be matched to their useful life which should optimally perform for 25-30 years. In addition, sustainable processes for dealing with wind turbines at the end of their service life is also needed considering the expected amount of waste blade material that will need to be recycled annually can increase up to 800,000 tonnes per year by 2050. MAREWIND project aims to address these challenging aspects increasing competitiveness and sustainability of the sector.
MAREWIND addresses the main aspects related to materials durability and maintenance in offshore structures which consequently imply failures, misfunctioning, loss of efficiency in energy generation and which have a major repercussion on O&M and CAPEX.
The following specific objectives are set: Increasing durability/anticorrosion of metallic materials for atmospheric and splash areas, Increasing durability of non-metallic materials for structural components, Long-term durability of antifouling coatings without biocides, Increasing stiffness and strength and reducing weight of larger blades, Leading-edge protection systems with increased erosion resistance, Monitoring and predicting structural health and corrosion for preventive maintenance, Implementing circular use of blade materials at prototype level, Demonstrating scalable manufacturing technologies, Standardisation and regulation and Assessing the economic viability, environmental and social impact of the proposed solutions.
All the objectives regarding performance improvement have been monitored with KPIs during the project and the impact can be directly measured through them. The methodology defined for KPIs assessment has been established and reviewed in Consortium Meetings. First stage consisted on setting the references and quantifying the improvements in terms of performance. In a second stage, results of MAREWIND are being collected at different testing scales. Final stage consisted on quantifying the reduction on costs and environmental impacts due to the improvement of the different materials planned in the project. All details of costs quantification according to different cases and scenarios have compared standards with MAREWIND technologies. Furthermore, evaluation of economical performances of MAREWIND solutions carried out through Life Cycle Costing (LCC) methodology has been carried out. Other important expected outcome of the project is related with Reduction of Environmental Impact.
All the established objectives have been achieved at the end of the project.
