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H2020Doctoral network2015–2018

AWESOME · Advanced Wind Energy Systems Operation and Maintenance Expertise

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2015-01-01 → 2018-12-31
EU contribution
€2,862,074
Participants
19
Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners. CORDIS does not always give exact coordinates for projects before 2014. These points are placed at city or country level.

Results in brief

Advanced Wind Energy Systems Operation and Maintenance Expertise

In 2013, the wind energy sector reached 117 GW of installed capacity in Europe, which would, in a normal wind year, produce enough electricity to cover 8% of the EU’s consumption. The growing trend of the sector (over 10% of annual increase along the last 10 years), together with the aging of existing onshore parks, makes the operation and maintenance (O&M) one of the critical tasks for ensuring a cost-effective exploitation of wind farms. For a new machine, O&M costs might easily have an average share over the lifetime of the turbine of approximately 20%-25% of total levelised cost per kWh produced. Besides that, there is a general agreement within the European wind energy industry on the fact that the sector is suffering an increasing shortage of skilled labour. The industry has a large proportion of vacancies for highly skilled personnel. A recent report from the TPWind Platform established that nearly 50,000 additional trained staff will be needed by the industry by 2030. By that year, O&M will become the greatest source of new jobs and demand for trained staff. On the other hand, the Roadmap on Education and Training of the SET Plan recommends the creation of networks of universities and other relevant higher education institutions. AWESOME is determined to answer these challenges, by shaping a critical mass of new expertise with the fundamental skills required to power the scientific and technological challenges of Wind Energy O&M. The network also constitutes a core for a world-class cluster of European research expertise in Wind Energy O&M, gathering reference experts in all the disciplines required by O&M, that includes electricity, electronics, mechanics, communication technologies, meteorology, statistics, economics & finances, logistics, managerial aspects, etc. The fellows will be trained while performing R&D projects, aiming to optimize the O&M of wind energy by means of an integrated research program.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

AWESOME network aims to educate eleven young researchers in the wind power operation and maintenance (O&M) field by constructing a sustainable training network gathering the whole innovation value chain. The main EU actors in the field of wind O&M have worked together, under the umbrella of the European Wind Energy Academy (EAWE), in order to design a training program coping with the principal R&D challenges related to wind O&M while tackling the shortage of highly-skilled professionals on this area that has been foreseen by the European Commission, the wind energy industrial sector and the academia.The overall AWESOME research programme tackles the main research challenges in the wind O&M field identified by the European wind academic and industrial community: (1) to develop better O&M planning methodologies of wind farms for maximizing its revenue, (2) to optimise the maintenance of wind turbines by prognosis of component failures and (3) to develop new and better cost-effective strategies for Wind Energy O&M. These main goals have been divided into eleven specific objectives, which will be assigned to the fellows, for them to focus their R&D project, PhD Thesis and professional career.The established training plan answers the challenges identified by the SET Plan Education Roadmap. Personal Development Career Plans will be tuned up for every fellow, being their accomplishment controlled by a Personal Supervisory Team. The training plan includes intra-network activities, as well as network-wide initiatives. The secondments at partner organizations and between beneficiaries are a key attribute of the training programme. Each fellow will be exposed to three different research environments from both, academic and industrial spheres. All the network activities will be developed in accordance with the established in the Ethical Codes and Standards for research careers development, looking therefore for talent, excellence and opportunity equality.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • FUNDACION CIRCE CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION DE RECURSOS Y CONSUMOS ENERGETICOS · ZaragozaCoordinatorSpain
  • ASOCIACION EMPRESARIAL EOLICA · MADRIDSpain
  • CARL VON OSSIETZKY UNIVERSITAET OLDENBURG · OldenburgGermany
  • DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET · Kongens LyngbyDenmark
  • DONG Energy Power Holding A/S · FredericiaDenmark
  • ENEL GREEN POWER SPA · RomaItaly
  • GARRAD HASSAN & PARTNERS LIMITED · BristolUnited Kingdom
  • GENERAL ELECTRIC RENOVABLES ESPANA · BarcelonaSpain
  • INGETEAM POWER TECHNOLOGY SA · ZamudioSpain
  • LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY · LoughboroughUnited Kingdom
  • NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU · TrondheimNorway
  • POLITECNICO DI MILANO · MilanoItaly
  • RAMBOLL DEUTSCHLAND GMBH · HamburgGermany
  • RAMBOLL MANAGEMENT CONSULTING GMBH · HAMBURGCity levelGermany
  • SGURRENERGY LIMITED · GLASGOWUnited Kingdom
  • Simis AS · MalmNorway
  • TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN · MuenchenGermany
  • UNIVERSIDAD DE CASTILLA - LA MANCHA · Ciudad RealSpain
  • UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE · GlasgowUnited Kingdom

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union