Alstom Sees NREL ECN Research Agreement as a Positive Development for Offshore Wind
Alstom Sees NREL ECN Research Agreement as a Positive Development for Offshore Wind
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Alstom Wind’s President said today that a recently announced collaborative agreement between two prominent national research laboratories that the company has long-standing partnerships with is a positive development for the company and the industry. On April 23, the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Energy Research Centre of The Netherlands (ECN) announced an agreement to collaborate.
Alstom Wind President Alfonso Faubel said, “Alstom applauds NREL and ECN for forming this collaborative agreement. In particular, we believe that their wind-energy research on Advanced Controls of Integrated Turbine Systems (offshore and land-based) will help accelerate the development of this critically important technology. We look forward to continuing to work with both organizations to advance research and development around onshore and offshore wind-energy technologies.”
In March, Alstom inaugurated the largest offshore wind turbine in the world, The 6 MW Haliade 150 wind turbine, at Carnet in the Loire-Atlantique, France. Alstom is the exclusive supplier to a consortium that was recently awarded three (of four) projects—approximately 240 turbines—that, in total, will provide 3 GW of wind turbine power off French shores by 2015. (The consortium, which is led by EDF Energies Nouvelles, includes Dong Energy, the Danish energy specialist, as well as the developers Nass & Wind and wpd Offshore.)
In the U.S., Alstom and NREL have been jointly testing a 3 MW Alstom ECO 100 wind turbine at NREL’s National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) in Boulder, Colorado, for over two years. Initial testing and analysis has been completed on the ECO 100 turbine. Now, Alstom and NREL plan to continue pursuing research and development in advanced technology areas including offshore wind energy.
“NREL values our research partnership with Alstom because they are pursuing some of the most advanced and challenging technological innovations in the industry,” said Paul Veers, Chief Engineer at NREL’s National Wind Technology Center. “Their research staff is working closely with NREL staff and have been extremely positive in their approach to collaboration.”
Alstom has two arenas of collaboration with ECN – simulation and testing. First, Alstom uses ECN simulation tools for offshore O&M optimization and cost analysis. This includes information regarding reliability of the turbines combined with wind farm specifics, weather conditions, number of turbines, distance to shore and number of vessels. In continuing R&D initiatives, Alstom is also planning to install the ECO 122 prototype at ECN by the end of this year. ECN collaboration using this prototype will include measurement of performance, loads and quality of energy.
Faubel concluded, “Partnerships with world-class research agencies such as NREL and ECN will enhance Alstom’s ability to leverage our success in the French offshore wind project as we pursue opportunities in the U.S. and other key markets worldwide.”
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