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LIFES50+ Real-Time Hybrid Model tests of the NAUTILUS Wind Energy Floating Foundation at SINTEF Ocean

 

Friday 16th of March 2018, NAUTILUS Floating Solutions and SINTEF Ocean have gathered renowned personalities of the offshore wind energy industry to witness the reduced scale test of its floating platform concept carried out at the SINTEF Ocean Basin in Trondheim, Norway, in the framework of the European LIFES50+ Project.

Qualified representatives of this emerging industry attended the event and presented their experience and business vision like STATOIL (the Norwegian Oil & Gas company developer of the world’s first floating offshore wind farm, Hywind Scotland), ENOVA SF, the Norwegian public agency in charge of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, SIEMENS GAMESA Renewable EnergiesSGRE– the world’s leading manufacturer of offshore wind turbines, the International Energy Agency Wind Technology Collaboration Program, ACS-COBRA, whose activity is focused on the engineering, installation and industrial maintenance of infrastructures, Cluster of Energy of the Basque Country, a non-profit organization that gathers most Basque companies in the energy field, SINTEF Ocean (belonging to SINTEF, one of the largest R&D institutions in Europe) and NAUTILUS (a company whose mission is to design and manufacture floating offshore wind foundations).

The large delegation of the Basque Country included Alexander Arriola, Director of the Basque Business Development Agency -SPRI-, Íñigo Ansola, Director of the Basque Energy Agency -EVE-, Jose I. Hormaeche, Director of the Cluster of Energy of the Basque Country, and Luis Pedrosa, Director of the Energy and Environment Division of TECNALIA, among others. Major Basque companies involved in this industry such as VICINAY CADENAS, TAMOIN, NAVACEL, NERVIÓN INDUSTRIES and ERREKA also attended to the Event.

Rafael de Andrés, the Chief Commercial Attaché of the Embassy of Spain in Oslo, several relevant Norwegian companies in this industry and partners of the LIFES50+ Project participated in the Event totaling nearly sixty attendees.

Bård Wathne Tveiten, Research Director at SINTEF Ocean welcomed the attendees. Terje Sørvik, Member of County Executive Board/Chair of Committee for business in Trøndelag region, enhanced the technological and industrial capacities of the region and inspired the participants to cooperate in innovative projects. Nils Kristian Nakstad, Head of ENOVA SF, pointed the mission of his organization in facilitating the conversion of Norwegian society to a low carbon economy. Jesper Moeller, Head of Offshore Concepts & Solutions of Siemens-Gamesa Renewable Energy -SGRE-, talk about his company’s experience in offshore wind, particularly in floating and underlined the need for the early industrialization of this new technology. Ignacio Martí, Chairman of the IEA Wind TCP, presented the activities that his organization is carrying out in the field of offshore wind and Henriette Undrum, Vice President Technology Management of Statoil ASA, presented the Hywind Scotland Project, the first demonstration floating wind farm in the world.

After a well-deserved coffee, which served to socialize and network, Goren Aguirre, Senior Naval Architect of ACS-COBRA, presented the role that his organization is playing in the development of several of today’s most relevant floating offshore wind projects such as Kincardine (Scotland), W1N (Taiwan) and FLOCAN5 (Canary Islands). José I. Hormaeche, Managing Director of the Cluster of Energy of the Basque Country, presented the value chain that the Basque Country has developed in this sector with companies that are already engaged in the floating offshore wind energy industry. Jesús M. Busturia, Managing Director of NAUTILUS, together with Raúl Rodríguez, Technical Director of NAUTILUS and Germán Pérez, Head of the Offshore Wind Area in TECNALIA, presented the NAUTILUS company, the technological development carried out so far and its participation in the LIFES50+ project -through TECNALIA- as well as the company future projects and development. Finally, Thomas Sauder, senior scientist at SINTEF Ocean, showed the sophisticated technology of the tests that have been conducted in their facilities.

After the presentations, the attendees moved to the SINTEF Ocean Basin where they witnessed a test of the NAUTILUS reduced scale model foundation. In these tests, the model is subjected to sea actions similar to those found in its real life. In addition, a cable system simulates the wind loads that the wind turbine will suffer when generating energy.

“This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 640741”.

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