A fledgling idea has become a life-extender for offshore wind turbines

You have to crawl before you can walk, they say.

Hans Jørgen Riber, chief advisor at Niras, says the same thing when asked about the starting point for STROWIN, a new and fully developed software product for the global market for energy production.

“Years of experience with extending the lifespan of oil and gas platforms made us think about whether we couldn’t do the same for offshore wind turbines. That’s why we gathered everyone who might be interested in the fledgling idea for an open workshop through Energy Cluster Denmark. Here, three years later, we have a finished product that we can sell, and that can extend the operation of individual offshore wind turbines or an entire wind farm by several years,” says Hans Jørgen Riber.

Extension rather than demolition
After the open workshop, Hans Jørgen Riber, together with several major players in the wind industry and researchers from Aalborg University, found that a digital solution could be the way forward when, for example, the health of the wind industry’s structures at sea needed to be monitored and possibly improved.

“From oil and gas platforms, we knew that fatigue in the platform's structure can be repaired rather than scrapping the production unit if, for example, the load-bearing capacity is a problem. We found out from that experience that we could convert to energy production from wind through a software solution,” says Hans Jørgen Riber.

The idea from the workshop quickly turned into an actual project, Reliability Based Structural Health Monitoring in Offshore Wind. The project received support from the European program Eurostars and the Danish Innovation Fund, as well as from a Swiss fund, as one of the partners was the company Matrisk from Switzerland, which specializes in risk analysis.

After completing the project, the partners are now on the market with a finished software product that can reflect the current condition of each offshore wind turbine with a digital twin, so that the companies that own the turbines can gain insight into whether repairs are needed offshore.

“Through our software, we can see whether the structure of the offshore wind turbine is getting tired and whether repairs are needed. We can then combine this with manual inspections and the park owner's plans for the overall lifespan. In this way, the industry gets a better insight into whether it is possible to extend the lifespan of offshore wind turbines rather than dismantling them, which also means that you can save the money and the climate impact that the production of new turbines represents. Ten years of lifespan extension can really mean a lot – also in relation to due diligence if you want to sell your wind farm to another operator,” says Hans Jørgen Riber.

The biggest challenges, the best ideas
The workshop, which Energy Cluster Denmark hosted in 2021, was financed by funds from the Ministry of Education and Research for so-called knowledge bridge activities. The effort is about bringing together researchers and companies around potential innovation projects, says Christian Munk Jensen, project manager at Energy Cluster Denmark

He was the one who, on behalf of the energy cluster, drove the process ahead of STROWIN in 2021.

"The initial dialogue and workshop were both about getting the biggest challenges and the best ideas for solutions on the table. We combined the companies' insight with existing research and articles on life extension, and explored the possibilities of finding further financing for what is now a finished product. In the energy cluster, we are happy to see that our preliminary work with the industry is yielding concrete and climate-friendly products - that is ultimately what we go to work to help with," says Christian Munk Jensen.

According to Hans Jørgen Riber, an early exploration of the potential of an idea can be crucial for new business legs - and for project proposals that may have to be put on hold.

"It is in the interaction with others in the industry that you can really qualify your own way of doing things. At the same time, this is where you can put your own skills into play together with others, for example researchers, who can increase the joint innovative power. Our product from STROWIN is first and foremost relevant for owners of offshore wind turbines, and we are already making a difference there. It may also be interesting for insurance companies and others around large offshore projects. Many parks are getting old – and there are also new technologies such as floating offshore wind on the way,” says Hans Jørgen Riber and continues:

“We have just been to Aberdeen for a large conference, and there was great interest in our product. We look forward to spreading the technology further, for the benefit of the industry, the climate and our own business,” says Hans Jørgen Riber.