Wind power capacity in the UK will almost quadruple from 7.9GW to at least 30GW by 2030, according to a new ‘sector deal’ announced by the industry and government today. The energy source will generate one-third of our electricity, the Offshore Wind Industry Council said, creating “tens of thousands of highly-skilled jobs across the UK and [attracting] billions of pounds in investment”.
The electricity source has halved in price in recent years thanks to the increased scale of turbines, said Tony Quinn, test and validation director at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. New models include the 9.5MW MHI Vestas V164. Turbines will become even more powerful, but Quinn said supporting technology will be key to the source’s massive expansion to 2030.
“I think the next phase of cost reduction will focus on operation and maintenance… the more you can innovate in that area, particularly in AI and autonomous services, the more you can benefit from cost savings and reduction of manual interventions,” he told Professional Engineering.
Widespread introduction of predictive maintenance AI will depend on testing to provide a deep knowledge of how turbines work and react to loads, Quinn said.
“What we do here in our testing facilities is recreate the load that these wind turbines experience over 25 years of being offshore – accelerated life testing. In doing so, we get terabytes of data… to try and find early failure modes,” he said. “The challenge we have is to combine our data with the data being generated from offshore wind farms. The combination of the two, you can bring together the field data with the test data to begin to understand and predict early failure.”
Issues could potentially be identified before any tell-tale cracks have spread, including early bearing failure, metal fatigue or early blade failures from acoustic measurement.
“If you have got an early problem with a blade you could unload it or derate it a little bit until an appropriate weather window opens and allows you to dispatch a maintenance team to fix it. The whole point of being 100 miles offshore is you need high-reliability machinery. Artificial intelligence and digitalisation will play a big role in making sure we have that reliability.”
This approach will allow a “new paradigm” of dispatching maintenance vehicles on demand, said Quinn, bringing cost savings but also health and safety improvements thanks to reduced human intervention in potentially dangerous environments.
Unmanned vehicles will also tackle other tasks. “Autonomous surface vehicles to simply deliver materials to the turbines are being looked at, and in particular drones being used beyond line of site to do the inspections. What you don’t want is for people to be on a vessel operating the drone. A drone returning to shore with the information or streaming it back would be very valuable.”
Remotely operated underwater vehicles are also likely to see increased autonomy and deployment. The Catapult is working with companies capable of “incredibly fast” surveys, Quinn said.
Catching the wind
Back on dry land, large scale technological innovation will also be required to ensure the National Grid and consumers can maximise the benefits of increased wind power generation.
“There will need to be equal effort placed on developing energy efficiency programmes to reduce power demand, as well as effective storage technologies that will enable power to be dispatched when needed,” said IMechE head of engineering Dr Jenifer Baxter. “Onshore grid systems need to be managed to ensure this low carbon electricity can be accessed across the U.K.”
Winds of change
“The sector deal is about creating opportunities for the people who will be part of our 27,000-strong offshore wind workforce,” said Renewable UK chief executive Hugh McNeal. “We’re setting up a new body to develop the right skills for years to come, not only by offering apprenticeships, but also by helping experienced people from other parts of the energy sector, as well as the military, to make the change into offshore wind. We also want to ensure far more diversity in the industry, by reaching a target of at least 33% women employees by 2030, and by recruiting people from a wider variety of ethnic backgrounds.”
The sector deal also includes £250m industry investment to develop the supply chain. Companies lined up to celebrate the “transformative” deal today, pledging work on advanced new technologies and investment in workforces.
Robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) are redefining the offshore wind working environment with safety improvements during inspection and maintenance thanks to reduced human intervention in dangerous environments. Robotic technology for applications including aerial and underwater units are not only improving safety but also boosting productivity and cost efficiency.
To find out more, attend the Robotics and Autonomous Systems in Offshore Wind Operation and Maintenance Services seminar, 23 May 2019, London.
Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.