Offshore renewable energy projects are gaining significant traction worldwide. If we look at the European Union alone, the deployment of offshore wind energy is at the core of delivering the European Green Deal, which aims to ensure Europe’s competitiveness and security of energy supply.
Overall, the European Commission has already published a dedicated EU strategy on offshore renewable energy, proposing robust measures to support the long-term sustainable development of the sector. The strategy sets ambitious target for an installed capacity of at least 60 GW of offshore wind and 1 GW of ocean energy by 2030, and 300 GW and 40 GW, respectively, by 2050. The good news is that the EU countries have already exceeded the targets proposed by the Commission, both in the short and long term.
The global market for offshore renewable energy is also growing fast. According to the 2024 Offshore Wind Market Report published by the National Renewable Energy Limited (NREL), new offshore wind installations in 2023 increased global capacity to over 68 GW, spread across 319 operating projects that host over 13,000 operating turbines.
With additional projects at various stages of planning and development, the offshore wind energy capacity in the pipeline totals more than 453.6 GW, with 104.4 GW from floating structures.
Such growth in offshore renewable energy regimes requires strong support from the global R&D community worldwide—and that support is available. In the following segment, we discuss one such innovative development: the deployment of underwater robots capable of predicting waves in real time so that the cost of producing offshore renewable energy could be reduced.
New Technology Could Make It Cheaper, Faster, and Safer to Maintain Offshore Wind Farms and Tidal Turbines
The research was done by three University of Edinburgh researchers, Kyle L. Walker, Laura Beth Jordan, and Francesco Giorgio-Serchi. This team of researchers developed a complete end-to-end control architecture for disturbance rejection during station-keeping tasks under wave perturbations, encompassing a nonlinear model predictive controller (NMPC) combined with a deterministic sea wave predictor (DSWP). Their solution aims to make it easier for underwater vehicles operating in wave-dominated environments, where disturbances significantly influence vehicle response and pose a threat to operational safety.
Simply put, the researchers have come up with tools—both computational and experimental—that empower autonomous robots to maintain a steady position amid irregular, buffeting waves. The University’s FloWave testing tank served as the trial site for the experiment. For data, they used insights captured by a buoy in the North Sea to mimic the types of conditions robots might work in.
The system uses devices tethered to the seafloor to measure the direction and height of incoming waves and convey the information in real-time to a robot working nearby, enabling the unmanned machine to pre-empt complex future disturbances in the water and counteract them to maintain a stable position.
The Benefits of the Tech
Source: The University of Edinburgh
Stable unmanned robots stationed offshore would carry out the complex task of routine maintenance at a lower cost, reducing the overall cost of generating renewable energy, which lacks competitive advantage for costing typically much more than fossil fuels. The deployment of such robots and their stability would also ensure simplified operations that do not need ships, helicopters, or hoisting equipment.
Researchers highlight that their new solution is better than the conventional control systems.
To elaborate on the nature of the upgrade that these control systems have been through, Dr. Kyle Walker, one of the three researchers, had the following to say:
“By forming a prediction of future wave disturbances and integrating this within the control system, we’re able to expand this range with little to no change to the robot hardware. In terms of translating this technology into the field, this is a huge benefit and makes our system applicable to most vehicles currently available on the market.”
Moreover, trial findings have shown that the system has high levels of compatibility with robots operating at great depths near the surface where disturbances are felt quite strongly.
In future, the researchers are keen to empower the solution with greater autonomy for it to perform precise tasks where it would detect rust or fix electric equipment without becoming unstable.
While speaking about the benefits the advancement of this tech could bring, Dr Francesco Gorgio-Serchi said:
“Advancing this technology further could help bring about a step change in the adoption of unmanned robots at sea and drastically increase the degree of automation in the offshore sector.”
While this research makes offshore renewable energy production cheaper and more efficient, we must remember that research in this field has been continuing for a long time. In 2022, for instance, three researchers, Y. Liu, M Hajj, and Y. Bao, published a review of robot-based damage assessment for offshore wind turbines or OWTs. Following are some of the crucial aspects of the review’s findings.
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Deploying Robots to Assess Damage in Offshore Wind Turbines
The research underscored the fact that robots could carry out the task of automated condition assessment of offshore wind turbines. It looked into the possibilities of deploying UAVs, climbing robots, and underwater robots for monitoring and the use of photography, thermography, and X-ray imaging to detect anomalies.
Offshore wind turbines suffer from many factors, including harsh environments where dynamic and extreme loads keep taking a toll on their safety and service life. The installation and maintenance costs rise, causing a surge in the cost of renewable energy production overall. Moreover, there is the risk of material degradation caused by the salt waters of the sea.
The research says that the recent advancements in robotic technology and intelligent algorithms can assist in assessing the levels of damage in OWTs. While a robot packed with an NDE device can be remotely or automatically operated to inspect OWTs, the data obtained from these NDE devices can be analyzed using intelligent algorithms for damage detection, classification, localization, and quantification. The UAVs, climbing robots, and underwater robots can further assist by carrying devices such as optical and infrared cameras, as well as X-ray equipment.
The research inferred that robot-based inspections could be great solutions for enhancing safety and offering a high level of robustness while keeping the price low.
Looking at the value these solutions offer to the renewable energy production industry, several companies have come up with commercial solutions in this area. Following are some such examples.
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1. Aerones
Aerones is one of the global leaders among companies that offer robotic wind turbine care services. The company claims to leverage its patented robotics technology for its service teams to deliver faster, safer, and more effective services for wind operators worldwide.
The scope of services offered by Aerones touches upon all crucial service areas of a turbine’s life cycle, including inspection, cleaning, repair, and more. For inspection, it provides lightning protection, internal and drone inspection, and drainage hole cleaning services. In cleaning, Aerones in tower and blade cleaning. For repair services, Aerones’ highly sophisticated robotic platform helps with surface preparation, filler application, sanding, and leading-edge protection, applying protection coating to safeguard the blade surface from erosion for years to come.
Aerones’ unique set of robotic services is not designed to replace humans or take jobs away from them. It requires certified technicians to control the tools from the comfort of a warm vehicle. Owing to their robotic precision and efficiency, Aerones’ services minimize downtime by 4-6 times and reduce idle stay by 5-10 times. Its proprietary system delivers high-quality robotic services to wind turbine technicians for inspections, cleaning, maintenance, and repairs, while its cloud-based digital data platform gathers unique cross-industry datasets from inspections, enabling efficient pricing of smarter preventive maintenance plans & budgets.
In September 2024, Aerones secured an innovation fund support provided for highly innovative, market-ready, scalable and ambitious infrastructure projects aimed at CO2 emission reduction.
Aerones received €4.4 million from the EU’s innovation fund. The project, they explained, aims to achieve turbine repairs within 18 hours, significantly minimizing downtime and contributing to global climate goals. According to reports, their approach was estimated to lead to a reduction of 67% in repair downtime, avoiding 161,349 tons of CO2 emissions over a decade and enabling the production of an additional 918,320 MWh in renewable electricity.
In January 2023, Aerones raised US$30 Million to scale its robot-enabled services and drive efficiencies. The funding round was co-led by new investors Lightrock and Haniel, with participation from Blume Equity and existing investors Change Ventures, Metaplanet, and Mantas Mikuckas, among others.
Aerones said the fund would be used to grow Aerones’ technical and sales functions, increase the number of robot service teams, and expand into new fast-growing markets. At the time of raising the funds, Aerones’ range of robot-enabled solutions already served customers that represented 50 percent of the world’s wind power capacity.
2. Bladebug
Another innovative firm to address the needs of the first growing offshore wind industry and make them predictable and efficient is Bladebug. The company has been developing advanced robots to assist technicians in the inspection and repair of turbine blades, without the need for rope access. There are many advantages to Bladebug’s robotic solutions. They reduce the barriers to adoption, minimize downtime, and prevent duplication of efforts.
Bladebug’s crawler robots can be operated out of the line of sight. With its help, technicians can remotely perform maintenance tasks without the associated cost and without being exposed to harsh conditions. It is semi-autonomous.
Secondly, since it is lightweight, the speed of deployment and ease of use is much higher than many of its peers. Through Bladebug’s robotic solution, O&M teams can treat defects before it would be viable to use a traditional rope access team. This preventative maintenance increases the efficiency of the turbine and maximizes the low-carbon energy generated.
Finally, its modular design ensures that the robot body can accept different non-destructive testing and repair equipment, making it flexible while offshore.
Bladebug has received extensive financial support and mentorship from companies like Innovate UK, Catapult Offshore Renewable Energy, Imperial Enterprise Lab, and Launch Academy. It is funded by two investors: Britbots and The Offshore Wind Growth Partnership.
3. Reblade
In May 2024, the Global Wind Energy Council reported that a record 117 gigawatts of new capacity were installed worldwide in 2023. Due to the challenge of installing more hardware and a surge in accompanying maintenance plans, Danish company Reblade created a drone-delivered miniature repair factory.
The company’s robotic blade repair solutions include plug-and-play for maintenance crews that allow teams to instruct and monitor projects from the ground. Reblade’s robots could provide erosion repairs with a robot for each activity, from cleaning and grinding to coating and painting the leading edge of turbine blades. The drone-delivered repair system was customizable, with each module able to deliver tasks and products specific to each client’s preferences and needs.
The company claimed that its robots were extremely fast and efficient, with service teams completing repairs on two full turbines in a single day. It also claimed that its solutions could withstand a variety of weather conditions, with the robots working seamlessly in remote locations, reducing service time and costs by up to 80 percent. The company has three investors, including Eureka Network and the European Innovation Council.
Robotic Solutions to Enhance Offshore Windfarms and Tidal Turbines: The Future
In the days to come, enhancing efficiency across offshore wind farms and tidal turbines will require greater efforts in automating inspection and maintenance processes. These aspects, apart from improving service quality, will also significantly reduce safety concerns to a large extent by reducing the need for human divers to work in dangerous underwater environments.
The shift from human efforts to robotic solutions will involve remotely operated vehicles, unmanned surface vessels, and more sophisticated autonomous underwater robots. These technologies will operate successfully in conditions that are hazardous or inaccessible for humans, functioning across a range of challenging weather conditions, at greater depths, and for longer periods.
Researchers working in this space have identified several key areas requiring more nuanced solutions. For instance, underwater robots must maintain precise positioning in turbulent seas— a challenge that the research we started our discussion with addresses as a significant breakthrough.
Researchers are also contemplating the use of digital twins. Since the robots of today are capable of advanced 3D mapping and reconstruction technologies, they can create detailed three-dimensional models of subsea infrastructure. Engineers can then use these ‘digital twins’ to monitor the accumulation of marine life on turbine foundations or to identify potential structural issues, all from the safety of onshore control rooms.
Another game-changing breakthrough in this space is the coordinated use of USVs and ROVs. USVs act as mobile base stations, deploying and coordinating with underwater ROVs to perform comprehensive inspections of wind farm infrastructure. Teams conducting such operations benefit from advanced AI and control systems, which allow these robotic units to navigate complex underwater environments with remarkable precision and efficiency.
According to estimates, the use of robotic inspection systems could reduce fuel consumption for maintenance missions by up to 97%—from 7,000 liters per day to just 200 liters.
Summarily, the benefits are many. The climate benefits from significantly reduced carbon emissions. The companies benefit in the long run as these solutions bring down the overall renewable energy production cost. And, finally, the employees, especially those related to maintenance and inspection benefit from enhanced standards of safety and the possibility of a significantly risk-free work condition.
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