Grants awarded within NWO-KIC call for ‘Wind and solar energy innovations’
Four research projects have been awarded funding within the KIC call for ‘Wind and solar energy innovations’, two of which are led by researchers from TU Delft's Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. The KIC-call is intended to stimulate research into efficiency, cost reduction, and the circular design of materials, systems and processes for wind and solar energy, of which the societal challenge is an integral part. These four interdisciplinary research projects have a maximum term of six years and will start work in mid-2022.
The 'Holi-DOCTOR' project, led by Prof. Simon Watson, focuses on improving wind turbine blade maintenance procedures. Improving the efficiency of wind turbine maintenance, and especially of blades, can make a significant contribution to reducing the cost of wind energy both onshore and offshore. This project aims to bring together a number of monitoring techniques, including sound and vibration measurements and infrared measurements, in a holistic framework. This can be used to improve on current blade maintenance procedures by detecting potential blade problems both at the surface and within the structure.
For this project, Delft University of Technology is cooperating with Eindhoven University of Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, LM Wind Power and Green Trust.
Within the project LICHEN-BLADES, led by Dr. Julie Teuwen, will be worked on a dramatically new concept for wind turbine blades with reduced carbon footprint. The blades will be designed for structural re-use opportunities, that will realize the functionality of the first use-cycle and successive use-cycles. They will be made of carbon-capturing materials with minimum-waste manufacturing. New coating materials will reduce erosion, thereby extending lifetime. At the end of service life, the blades can be re-used as high-value components for construction industries. To identify viable routes to market, new business models for the circular economy will be explored, aiming to keep materials at the highest value as long as possible while distributing value between all stakeholders.
In this project, Delft University of Technology is working together with Maastricht University, Bcomp, Suzlon Energy Limited, Heijmans Infra BV, ENECO Wind BV, ECHT Regie in Transitie BV, FiberCore and DNV AS.
