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Annual Report 2014
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NOWITECH
Norwegian Research Centre for Offshore Wind Technology
Fugro OCEANOR re-joined NOWITECH in December 2014. NOWITECH has agreements on cooperation
with the following associate partners:
Research Plan
The objective of NOWITECH is to provide precompetitive research laying a foundation for industrial
value creation and cost-effective offshore wind farms. Emphasis is on “deep-sea” (+30 m) including
bottom-fixed and floating wind turbines.
Important elements in the research strategy are listed below:
• Combine wind technology knowhow with offshore and energy industry experience to enhance
development of offshore wind.
• Establish a recruitment and educational programme that provides for highly qualified staff at Master
and PhD level for serving the industry.
• Build strong relations with selected top international research partners.
• Facilitate active involvement by industry partners to ensure relevance and efficient communication
and utilization of results.
• The research ismainly of precompetitive nature providing for development until Technology Readiness
Level 4 or 5 (lab scale testing), and ready for takeover by more commercially directed projects with
industry lead.
• Actively pursue opportunities to increase R&D activity on critical issues.
Key issues in NOWITECH are education, knowledge building and innovations
aiming to reduce the cost of energy from offshore wind.
The research methodology includes a mix of analytic work, numerical
simulations and development of software tools, laboratory experiments and
field measurements. The mix will vary depending on the task addressed, though
the main portion of the budget is for scientific staff, while additional funding are
sought for any significant investments in experiments or research infrastructure.
The general idea is to align research in NOWITECH with other open research activities carried out by the
research partners, and by this maximize benefits of the funding.
The educational activity forms part of the research programme with engagement of MSc students and
funding of 24 PhD and 5 post doc students at NTNU. PhD and post doc students at NTNU working on
offshore wind, but funded through other sources, are carried out in alignment with NOWITECH.
Associate research partners:
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
• Michigan Technological University
(Michigan Tech), USA
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL),
USA • DTU, Denmark
• Fraunhofer IWES, Germany
• University of Strathclyde, UK
• TU Delft, Netherlands
• Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
Associate industry partners:
• Hexagon Devold AS
• Enova
• Energy Norway
• Innovation Norway
• Norwegian Wind Energy Association
(NORWEA)
• Norwegian Centres of Expertise
Instrumentation (NCEI)
• NVE • WindCluster Norway
Key issues in NOWITECH
are education, know-
ledge building and
innovations aiming to
reduce the cost of energy
from offshore wind.