The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Scotland, Eon and other companies have joined forces to research practical methods to reduce impacts of biofouling on offshore wind turbines.
The CleanWinTur project, funded by Innovate UK, will develop an ultrasonic system that performs continuous condition monitoring and effective antifouling.
This enables the implementation of predictive as well as condition-based maintenance leading to reduced operational expenditure, bringing down the levelised cost of energy of offshore wind.
The other project partners are NDT Consultants, Brunel University London, Reece Innovation, InnoTecUK and 3-Sci.
Biofouling – the settlement and growth of organisms – on the offshore wine turbine transition piece and monopile can accelerate corrosion of components affecting the functionality and potentially impacting the operational lifetime of offshore assets.
NDT Consultants project manager Djelloul Seghier said: “The CleanWinTur consortium includes businesses with a blend of expertise which is required to drive this innovative project forward.
NDT Consultants specialises in non-destructive testing and also carries out ultrasonic testing.
Seghier said: “We work very closely with offshore operators and therefore fully recognise the importance of developing systems to ensure the industry can overcome and limit the negative impacts that biofouling can bring.
“We are confident that the investigation will find real practical solutions to solve ongoing biofouling challenges, which will have a positive impact on the Offshore Wind sector and potentially save the industry millions, as well as creating new jobs after commercialisation.”
EMEC performance test engineer Myles Heward, who is leading the real-sea testing, said: “EMEC is delighted to be working on this project and to test the prototype system in the controlled environment here in Orkney.
According to Heward, this will allow for lessons to be learnt from testing in real sea conditions, which will ensure the system is fully optimised before it is installed on Eon’s infrastructure.
He said: “EMEC is well known for testing wave and tidal devices, however we’re enthusiastic to be diversifying into offshore wind testing as well as research and development projects to help the industry progress towards a clean energy system.”