Generation

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will develop a Wind Energy with Integrated Servo control (WEIS) model, a tool set that will enable CCD optimization of both conventional and innovative, cost-effective FOWTs. NREL’s WEIS model will be entirely open-source and publicly accessible, bringing together many components and disciplines into a concurrent design environment.

The University of Maine (UMaine) team will design an ultra-lightweight, corrosion-resistant, concrete FOWT equipped with NASA motion mitigation technology originally developed to reduce vibrations in rockets. UMaine proposes this technology to counteract FOWT motions, leading to lighter platforms, increased turbine performance, and a lower levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The project will take a radical next step in the field of floating offshore wind while building upon UMaine’s 12 years of experience in successfully designing and deploying the first grid-connected FOWT in the U.S.

WS Atkins will focus on generating experimental data that can be used to validate computer programs and new technologies developed for FOWT applications. The team will conduct experiments of 15-MW (megawatt) wind turbine scale models in world-class test facilities to assess the behavior of conventional and unconventional FOWT structures with advanced solutions. The WS Atkins team will make their data accessible to ATLANTIS project members and the public to facilitate benchmarking of new designs, accurate calibration of computer tools, and a FOWT database for future research.

The University of Central Florida will develop a comprehensive causality-free modeling and simulation platform that facilitates CCD, assists in incorporating multi-physics models, adapts to design changes, and allows rapid simulations to validate models and evaluate controllers for FOWTs. The team will study unique control concepts such as active tether actuation, gyroscopic balancing, hydraulic actuation, and individual pitch control.

A multidisciplinary team including Rutgers University, University of Michigan, Brigham Young University, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and international collaborators (Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Technical University of Denmark) will develop a computationally efficient CCD optimization software framework for floating offshore wind turbine design. They will focus on developing a modular computational framework for the modeling, optimization, and control of primary structures coupled to the surrounding air, water, and actuator dynamics.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will design an innovative floating offshore platform (SpiderFLOAT) to unlock the offshore wind market by lowering the cost of energy below the current value of fixed-bottom offshore wind plants. The project uses a revolutionary substructure based on a bioinspired, ultra-compliant, modular, and scalable concept and advanced control system. The team will complete preliminary design of a 10-MW unit by using CCD optimization techniques and advance the commercialization of the floating offshore wind technology.

The University of Texas at Dallas (UT-Dallas) team plans to develop a floating turbine design featuring a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). The design will exploit inherent VAWT characteristics favorable to deep water environments and use a CCD approach to overcome common challenges.

Principle Power (PPI) plans to lead a consortium of public and private institutions to develop, validate, and operate the world’s first digital twin software tailored to floating offshore wind applications. This digital twin model will be a real-time, high-fidelity numerical representation of the WindFloat Atlantic Project, which is composed of three semi-submersible platforms and the world’s largest FOWTs ever installed in the ocean. A fleet of interconnected ocean buoys that will be deployed at the WFA site will estimate and predict the local wind and wave environmental conditions.

Traditional wind turbines have grown larger to reach the higher wind speeds found at greater heights and enable the blades to intercept a larger area of wind. The stiffness required to hold up the blades and nacelle has caused turbines to become extremely heavy and consequently expensive.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in collaboration with the University of Maine (UMaine) will develop and execute the Floating Offshore-wind and Controls Advanced Laboratory (FOCAL) experimental program. The project’s goal is to generate the first public FOWT scale-model dataset to include advanced turbine controls, floating hull load mitigation technology, and hull flexibility. Current FOWT numerical tools require new capabilities to adequately capture advanced designs based upon control co-design methods.