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Description
LOOP Wind consists of an AI software platform, based in Machine Learning which seeks to optimize the location of offshore wind platforms, reducing costs and time to wind energy promotors and wind farms. It is borne from the identification of logistical and space limitations for onshore wind farms, along with the higher offshore wind production compared to land. To ensure Offshore exponential growth, LOOP Wind offers: optimization of the location of offshore wind platforms and reduction of the LCoE below 0,098 €/kWh by 2025 and 0,08 €/kWh by 2030, which will contribute even more for the attractiveness and efficiency of the offshore market to blue grow investors. The software to be offered to the market and respond to current needs and challenges (including, among others, obtaining an optimal design for the floating platform and optimal height for the nacelle), will have standard and modular components, different modules and layers of maps, it will be scalable and use the cloud to be cost-effective and accessible from everywhere at any time. The solution will use new technologies that are revolutionising many industries, namely Machine Learning which detects patterns and is able to predict based on historical data and can recommend the best options (orientation of the platform, size of the turbines in specific locations etc…). The main inputs will include metocean data, inland data (grid connections), populational data and restrictions-related data (military area, touristic areas, fishery zones, maritime traffic etc). LOOP Wind consists of an operation focused on the business development from early innovation stage up to testing of new technologies and supporting their first presentation to the market. The project team has the necessary competencies to develop the solution. Previous knowledge and experience stocked in past projects of Wunderocean and its team, especially the OIPS initiative offer the required conditions to position the start of the project in TRL4.
Summary of project results
The project was needed to optimize the wind offshore output and minimize the risks and costs associated with the implementation of wind offshore platforms in Portugal. The main challenge is to find the best locations for the wind offshore platforms, in order to effectively develop this renewable energy in Portugal and in Europe. The goal is to minimize the LCOE for a fixed number of turbines offshore Madeira island.
Our company, Wunderocean did the management of the project with a view to manage the funds effectively and towards a commercial product. We were involved in all the tasks, from data sourcing to cleaning to algorithms, testing, production of a prototype, setup of the interface of the product, effort to disseminate the results and the coordination and reporting of the project.
All these activities were important to develop the software and promote it to the public.
The main result is the achievement of a prototype and a research paper, as well as improving the use of ensemble -based optimisation. The main improvement is 1.5% of lower LCOE for the end users as calculated in our research paper.(from 132.4 euros per MWh to 130.45 euros per MWh).
Its importance is that by achieving a prototype, we can reasonably anticipate a commercial product within 3 to 6 months and hence creation of a better ecosystem for the offshore wind industry and creation of jobs (one for a programmer, one to 3 for salespeople).
Summary of bilateral results
Having a bilateral partner did benefit a lot this project, with Norce being a public research agency. With skills and experience unique and a good fit for our company. This helped accelerate the development of our product with their skills in coding and Algorithms in ensemble and optimisation methods.