ARCUS Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine

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Program:
ATLANTIS
Award:
$3,945,196
Location:
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Status:
ALUMNI
Project Term:
01/20/2020 - 01/31/2023
Website:

Technology Description:

Sandia National Laboratories will design a vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) system, ARCUS, with the goal of eliminating mass and associated cost not directly involved in capturing energy from the wind. A VAWT is ideal for floating offshore sites. Its advantages over horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) include no need of yaw systems, improved aerodynamic efficiency and a lower level placement of the turbine’s drivetrain that greatly reduces floating platform mass and associated system costs. The ARCUS design also replaces the turbine’s VAWT tower with lighter, tensioned guy wires. The result is up to a 50% lower rotor mass than traditional VAWTs. This greatly minimizes platform and system costs. Instead of designing the platform to eliminate the motion of the turbine, the project team will design the oscillating turbine-platform system to operate safely under extreme weather conditions within an allowable response. The ARCUS turbine will ensure the technical leadership of U.S. commercial and research institutions.

Potential Impact:

ATLANTIS projects will aim to develop new and potentially disruptive innovations in FOWT technology to enable a greater market share of offshore wind energy, ultimately strengthening and diversifying the array of domestic energy sources available to Americans.

Security:

Diverse, domestic energy resources can boost grid resiliency and reduce infrastructure vulnerabilities.

Environment:

Increased availability of affordable, reliable wind energy could lessen reliance on fossil fuels, reducing power sector emissions.

Economy:

Program developments in FOWTs could reduce the cost of wind energy production and provide an entirely new option for the offshore wind industry, as well as access to significant wind resources near major population centers on U.S. coastlines.

Contact

ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Mario Garcia-Sanz
Project Contact:
Brandon Ennis
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
blennis@sandia.gov

Partners

FPS Engineering and Technology
Keppel FloaTec, LLC

Related Projects

• General Electric (GE) Global Research - Control Co-design and Co-optimization of a Lightweight 12 MW Wind Turbine on an Actuated Tension Leg Platform
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) - The FOCAL EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM - Floating Offshore-wind and Controls Advanced Laboratory Experiment to Generate Data Set to Accelerate Innovation in Floating Wind Turbine Design and Controls
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) - Ultraflexible SmartFLoating Offshore Wind Turbine (USFLOWT)
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) - Wind Energy with Integrated Servo-control (WEIS): A Toolset to Enable Controls Co-Design of Floating Offshore Wind Energy Systems
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) - Wind Energy with Integrated Servo-control (WEIS): A Toolset to Enable Controls Co-Design of Floating Offshore Wind Energy (Phase 2)
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) - Ultraflexible SmartFLoating Offshore Wind Turbine (USFLOWT) (Phase 2)
• Otherlab - AIKIDO: Advanced Inertial and Kinetic Energy Recovery Through Intelligent (co)-Design Optimization
• Principle Power (PPI) - Development, Experimental Validation and Operation of a DIGItal Twin Model for Full-scale FLOATing Wind Turbines (DIGIFLOAT)
• Rutgers University - Computationally Efficient Control Co-Design Optimization Framework with Mixed-Fidelity Fluid and Structure Analysis
• Sandia National Laboratories - ARCUS Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine
• University of Central Florida (UCF) - Model-Based Systems Engineering and Control Co-Design of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines
• University of Maine (UMaine) - The NASA Floater: 15 MW Ultra-light Concrete Hull with Sea-water Ballast Tuned Mass Dampers
• University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) - A Low-Cost Floating Offshore Vertical Axis Wind System
• WS Atkins - Scale Model Experiments for Co-Designed FOWTs Supporting a High-Capacity (15-MW) Turbine

Release Date:
01/31/2019