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Annual Report 2014
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NOWITECH
Norwegian Research Centre for Offshore Wind Technology
• The possibility of supplying offshore petroleum platforms with power from offshore wind turbines
has been investigated. The main outcome of these studies is that systems with wind power connected
to oil and gas installations can be operationally stable and reliable with the proper design, and are
economically and environmentally sound. The results have increased the interest within the oil sector
to consider such solutions, and both Statoil and DNV GL are following up these ideas.
• Analysis tools for next-generation large-scale offshore wind power plants are in development with the
VIPER and STAS programs. VIPER computes the energy production of an offshore wind power plant,
using a boundary-layer model to account for the cumulative wake effects and STAS is a model of an
entire offshore wind power plant, represented in a single linearized state space. This type of mathe-
matical representation allows for rapid analysis of different designs and operational control of large
offshore wind farms.
• The Remote Presence concept was validated in the PhD study by Øyvind Netland successfully
completed in 2014. He is now employed in Norsk Automatisering AS that are commercialising the
concept. The Remote Presence concept applies a low-cost robot with camera, microphone and other
sensors inside the nacelle with monitoring and control from on-shore, increasing the operational time
of the turbine and reducing the need for offshore service visits.
• The SEAWATCH Wind Lidar Buoy by Fugro Oceanor is cost efficient and flexible compared to an off-
shore met mast and can measure wind profiles (300 m), wave height and direction, ocean current
profiles, etc. The development is a result of a NOWITECH “spin-off” joint industry project by Fugro
OCEANOR with Norwegian universities, research institutes and Statoil, and is now in a commercial
phase.
• New systems for wind farm management and operation are in development by Kongsberg Maritime
with support from research activity in NOWITECH and projects aligned with NOWITECH. These new
systems have the potential to significantly reduce the cost of energy from offshore wind farms.
The scientific work is of high international standard. In 2014 NOWITECH prepared 124 publications
including 40 peer-reviewed papers, 29 conference presentations, 21 reports and 14media contributions.
The use of web, newsletters and organization of workshops and conferences enhance the communica-
tion: • Two seminars were held in the series “Industry meets Science” in cooperation with WindCluster
Norway. These facilitate improved interaction between research and industry, also for parties outside
NOWITECH and as a Norwegian shadow-group towards the European strategic research agenda on
offshore wind.
• The annual offshorewind R&D conference in Trondheim linked upwith the European Energy Research
Alliance (EERA) joint programme of wind energy in 2014 and became the EERA Deepwind’2014
conference, with three days of presentations of the latest and best on-going R&D on deep sea offshore
wind farms. The conference had about 140 delegates from 14 countries, more than 90 presentations
whereof 34 papers were peer-reviewed and published in the open access journal Energy Procedia
(Elsevier).
Participation in relevant national and international forums is emphasised. These include participation
in Energi21 suggesting future research strategy for wind energy in Norway, active participation in IEA
Wind research collaboration, IEC TC88 wind turbine standardization working groups and taking leading
positions within the European Technology Platform on Wind (TPwind), the European Energy Research