DKK 100+ million for new innovation in the energy sector
30. June 2022
From late summer, Energy Cluster Denmark will initiate four new innovation projects within green energy technologies. All are supported by EUDP and with industry co-financing add more than DKK 100 million to new innovation.
An additional DKK 100 million will be pumped into the energy sector’s innovation power in the coming years.
This is the result of the fact that the Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Programme (EUDP) has prioritised its support for projects, companies and universities’ work with new, green energy technologies – and four innovation projects facilitated by Energy Cluster Denmark have received commitments.
“The four projects embrace the green transition from several entrances, and we are very much looking forward to taking on the task together with our members,” says Christian Boysen, Project Director at Energy Cluster Denmark.
Sector coupling and more wind
The four innovation projects are all focused on renewable energy. Sector coupling is the focal point of Offshore Energy Hubs, which will develop technical solutions for the world’s first two energy islands. The innovation project will provide management solutions for stable and robust operation of the energy islands as well as cost-effective design of offshore wind farms in interaction with Power-to-X. They include Energinet, Ørsted, DTU Wind Energy and Energy Systems, AAU Energy, Siemens Gamesa and Green Hydrogen Systems.
In the OptiCore Platform innovation project , the partners focus on the development and prototyping of a new digital design platform to reduce the weight of wind turbine blades by 2 percent. At the same time, it will demonstrate a paradigm shift on design, material consumption and manufacturing processes. The project partners include Nordex, Siemens Gamesa, Gurit and DTU Mechanical Engineering.
Automated, contactless inspection of damage to turbine blades in near real time will mean positive disruption of the current crew-intensive inspection. The AQUADA-GO innovation project will use thermography and computer calculations to analyse offshore wind turbines – without stopping the blades first. The ambition is to fully test the prototype system on RWE-owned offshore wind farms, and the potential is to save at least 50 percent of the cost of inspection. In addition to RWE, Quali Drone and DTU Wind Energy and Energy Systems participate.
Finally, a commitment has been made to develop 250 MW of wave power in the Danish North Sea before 2030; an innovation project that will look at the potential of developing the world’s first 250 MW wave energy plant and combining it with offshore wind. The project is carried out in close collaboration between Exowave and AAU Build and a number of other partners.
Industry committed to innovation
Overall, the four new innovation projects are supported with just over DKK 60 million, and in addition, the industry itself contributes with more than DKK 40 million.
“The industry’s commitment to the projects is crucial. We work with sought-after innovation, and it is an important expression of the demand that the industry itself has something at stake and its hand on the hob,” says Christian Boysen.
With the four new projects, the members’ project portfolio in Energy Cluster Denmark now amounts to DKK 2.8 billion.
Featured quote:
“It’s an important expression of the demand that the industry itself has something at stake and has its hand on the hob.”
Christian Boysen, Project Director, Energy Cluster Denmark.
FACTS:
- Offshore Energy Hubs: Total project sum DKK 38.9 million, EUDP support DKK 27 million.
- 250 MW of wave power: Total project sum DKK 26.5 million, EUDP support DKK 14 million.
- OptiCore Platform: Total project sum DKK 17.8 million, EUDP support DKK 9 million.
- AQUADA-GO: Total project sum DKK 17.8 million, EUDP support DKK 7.5 million.
