The infrastructures of the platform located on PLOCAN’s test site host the final validation process of the European project WATEREYE for predictive maintenance of offshore wind farms. The solutions developed will allow cost reduction and contribute to increasing annual energy production thanks to an innovative monitoring and control system.
The final phase of validation comes after three years of development of WATEREYE and during its course technicians from PLOCAN, Delft Dynamics (Netherlands), Flanders MAKE (Belgium) and CEIT (Spain), will test the operation of the drones, software and sensors to measure and predict corrosion in offshore wind turbine towers. The validation will be done in a steel structure simulating a wind turbine tower, installed in the hangar of the offshore platform.
The developed solution consists of a set of ultrasound sensors installed inside the tower and a mobile sensor included in a drone, among other tools. The drone will fly inside the tower, taking measurements of the thickness of different steel plates with different degrees of corrosion, thus simulating real wear conditions on the tower.
PLOCAN participates, along with eight other international partners in this project, with an estimated duration of three years. WATEREYE is financed with European funds, receiving more than €4.7 million distributed among the nine partners of the consortium led by the CEIT Research Center in the Basque Country, and which has extensive experience in the development of sensors and monitoring systems.
The consortium for the development of the WATEREYE project has partners from five European countries, including Delft Dynamics and the University of Delft (TUD) in the Netherlands; Semantic Web Company of Austria; SINTEF Industry and SINTEF Energy Research from Norway; Flanders Make from Belgium; and CEIT, COBRA and PLOCAN on behalf of Spain. Thanks to the experience and specialization of each of the partners, the main points of the value chain for the development, validation and exploitation of the technology developed during the project are perfectly covered.
