Funding to Demo Europe Ocean Energy

A new Interreg NWE project, Ocean DEMO, has been launched, with €12.8 million in funding to demonstrate ocean energy farms. Ocean DEMO will help finance developers of marine renewable technologies to test their products or services in real sea environments, specifically targeting multimachine ocean energy installations. This will allow developers to move closer to market by demonstrating their technologies at full commercial scale.

Ocean DEMO will release a first call for applications this year, and devices will be installed from 2020 to 2022.

Ocean DEMO will ease the transition toward pilot farms by providing free access to Europe’s open-sea test centers: EMEC – European Marine Energy Centre, U.K.; DMEC – Dutch Marine Energy Centre, Netherlands; SEM REV, France; and SmartBay, Ireland.

Tekmar CPS for Northwester 2
Offshore Wind Farm

Jan De Nul Group has selected the Tekmar cable protection system (CPS) TekLink mechanical latch for the Northwester 2 offshore wind farm.

Northwester 2 will be the sixth wind farm in the North Sea off the Belgian coast, comprising 23 turbines, and will provide a total of 219 MW from its location off the coast of Zeebrugge, in water depth of approximately 40 m. The project is set for completion in 2020.

Tekmar will supply the latest TekLink Generation 8 CPS for all inter-array and export cables.

Automated Technical Concept
For Wind Turbine Maintenance

MacArtney has secured an order from Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group to develop an automated concept for a hub generator tightening tool (HGT) to improve mechanization and reduce human interaction in wind turbine maintenance. MacArtney supplied an automated technical concept to the Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group. The HGT tool comprises a Turner tool that creates the rotation of the generator and an automatic bolt tool for torquing. Prior to torquing each bolt, the hub/generator is positioned with an optical sensor system that ensures the correct location under the nacelle. The tightening of the bolts is then carried out in two stages.

The automated process of the HGT tool reduces human exposure and, thereby, improves safety.

Wind Turbine Assembly
Contract for Hywind Tampen

Gulen Industrial Harbour has been awarded the contract for assembly of the floating Hywind Tampen wind turbines before they are transported to the field in the North Sea. No work will commence prior to an investment decision for Hywind Tampen. Hywind Tampen could become the world’s first project to use wind turbines for electrification of oil and gas installations. Reduction of CO₂ emissions from the five oil and gas platforms at the Snorre and Gullfaks fields is estimated at more than 200,000 tonnes per year. With a combined capacity of 88 MW, the 8-MW turbines will meet around 35 percent of the annual power demand of the five platforms.

The contractor will provide onshore and inshore areas for storage, assembly and commissioning of all components for the floating wind turbines, as well as necessary infrastructure and facilities. The floating wind turbines will be towed to the field, where they will be anchored, connected and put into operation.

Cable Protection for Scottish Offshore Wind Farm

Trelleborg’s applied technologies operation delivered a range of cable protection solutions for the Kincardine offshore wind farm and the 2-MW turbine that started producing power in October 2018. Trelleborg manufactured and delivered distributed buoyancy modules (DBM), bend stiffeners and Uraduct cable and flow-line protection.

Once complete, Kincardine will feature seven floating turbines with capacity of 9.6 MW each and total installed capacity of 50 MW. The remaining five turbines are scheduled for installation about 15 km southeast of Aberdeen, Scotland, through the first half of 2020.

Subsea electrical power cables are used to interconnect floating structures on offshore wind farms and run between the substation (electrical hub of the wind farm) and the shore. Trelleborg’s DBMs and bend-limitation products are designed to secure, guide and protect these power cables from excessive movement or bending that can potentially cause fatigue damage.

Total Bids Jointly on Wind Farm off Dunkirk

Total, Ørsted and Elicio announced the creation of an industrial consortium to submit a joint bid for the Dunkirk offshore wind farm project for a power capacity of up to 600 MW.

“Total’s participation in this offshore wind bid is in line with our strategy to develop low-carbon electricity business in Europe,” said Philippe Sauquet, president of Gas, Renewables and Power at Total.

Magallanes Installs ATIR Tidal Turbine at EMEC

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) welcomed Magallanes Renovables to the tidal test site at the Fall of Warness in Orkney, Scotland. The successful installation of the second-generation 2-MW tidal platform ATIR marks a major milestone in the Ocean_2G project, which aims to test, validate and precertify Magallanes’s device. The ATIR will undergo commissioning on site prior to connection to the national grid.

Led by SAGRES, Magallanes’s parent company, the Ocean_2G project consortium brings together EMEC, Leask Marine and IM FutuRe, with funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.