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Final ReportNORCOWE

Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy

May

201

7

www.norcowe.nopage 2

Foreword 4Centre Director Norcowe 4CEO Christian Michelsen Research 5

Norcowe at a glance 6Summary 8Sammendrag 11The history of Norcowe 14Vision and goals 16

Workplans 17

Research in Norcowe 18Norcowe Reference Wind Farm (NRWF) 18Cutting costs by wind measurements 20Norwegian Motion Lab 25Predictive modeling for short term wind power forecast 27Operation and maintenance decision analysis for Dugdeon 29

The impact of Norcowe 30Innovation and value creation 30Norcowe experiences 33Effects of centre for the host institution and research partners 34Training of researchers 36Communication & dissemination 41

International cooperation 42Future prospects and conclusions 44

For an overview over NORCOWE staff and publications please see Appendix.

Photos and illustrations by:

Marit Hommedal, Kristoffer Robin Haug/RCN, Asbjørn Jensen/UiS, Rix Leopard-Byron Price/Statoil, Tom Riis

Aalborg University, Christian Michelsen Research, Statoil, Uni Research, University of Agder, University of Bergen, University of Stavanger

Shutterstock

Editor:Kristin Guldbrandsen Frøysa, Centre Director

Layout:Per Gunnar Lunde, Communication Officer, Christian Michelsen Research


ForewordKristin Guldbrandsen Frøysa, Christian Michelsen Research, Centre Director Norcowe

Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy (Norcowe) was officially opened in October 2009. The centre was part of the Norwegian FME scheme. This scheme was set up by the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) to help reduce the CO2 footprint in Norway.

This report gives an overview of Norcowe and our main achievements. The report gives only a brief description, so please consult our website with annual reports, publication lists and presentations from Science Meets Industry and other conferences for detailed information.

The report presents the large picture of Norcowe, in order to present what we consider our main contributions to the development of the offshore wind community. Appendix A gives you the details about the centre such as scientific staff, management, the board, PhD students and the accounts.

Norcowe was started at a time with great interest in offshore wind in Norway. The oil and gas industry was looking for new business opportunities, and many Norwegian companies eyed offshore wind as a new business area. There was a consented offshore wind farm (Havsul I) and much activity related to the development of this project. This project was put on hold

in 2012 for economic reasons. The oil price increased signifi-cantly from 2009 to 2011, and thus much of the oil and gas industry lost their interest in offshore wind.

Today (2017) there is again great interest in offshore wind from the Norwegian oil and gas vendor industry and the Norwegian maritime sector.

There has been an enormous growth in the installed offshore wind capacity in Northern Europe over the last ten years. Renewable energy plays an important role in the energy mix in Europe and the prices for offshore wind has decreased rapidly over the last years. Many Norwegian companies are involved in offshore wind today and the business opportuni-ties are now acknowledged by many Norwegian companies. We think that the R&D done by Norcowe will continue to help Norwegian companies and research institutions to take a greater share of this large market.

The last day for Norcowe as a FME centre was 31st March 2017, but the heritage from Norcowe is used in new projects.

Norcowe will continue as a network for offshore wind, so stay tuned!


Christian Michelsen Research (CMR) has been a proud host for Norcowe since the centre inaugueration in 2009.Hosting a FME centre is a challenging task and a great opportunity. Norcowe has given CMR the opportunity to build new research activities and expertise within renewable wind energy. Measurement campaigns and development of tools for wind farm layout are major scientific topics for CMR within Norcowe.

A research institute with close links to Academia and to the industry, CMR is well suited for bridging the gap between Academia and the industry. Ensuring that the scientific results from Norcowe are relevant and applicable to the user part-ners in Norcowe has been important to CMR and we think that Norcowe has been successful in this respect.

ForewordArvid Nøttvedt, CEO Christian Michelsen Research

Norcowe has been instrumental in giving CMR a position in the national and international renewable community. Hosting Norcowe has given CMR the opportunity to participate in national and international forums addressing offshore wind at high level. CMR’s network has increased significantly and given us new project opportunities.

The proposed new FME centre on offshore wind did not make it in the competition. We think the value of centres like Norcowe should be seen in a long-term perspective, however, and we look for opportunities to capitalize on the knowledge and expertise that has been developed in Norcowe.

CMR is grateful for having had the opportunity to host Norcowe and we thank all of the collaborating institutions and user partners for a stimulating and rewarding eight-year research partnership.


Norcowe Research Partners:2009-2017: Christian Michelsen Research (CMR), Uni Research (Uni), University of Bergen (UiB), University of Agder (UiA), University of Stavanger (UiS) and Aalborg University (AAU)

Public Partners:Norwegian Meteorological Institute (2014-2017)

Company Partners: Statoil (2009-2017), Statkraft (2009-2017), Agder Energi (2009-2012), Origo Solutions (2009-2012), Norwind (2009-2010), StormGeo (2010-2012, 2014-2017), Vestavind Offshore (2009-2012), Lyse Produksjon (2009-2013), Aker Solutions (2009-2013), National Oilwell Varco (2009-2013), Leosphere (2014-2017), Aquiloz (2014-2017), Acona Flow Technology AS (2014-2017), AXYS Technologies/Flidar (2015-2017)

Work packages as of March 2017Work Package 1: Wind and ocean conditions, Lead: Joachim Reuder, University of BergenWork Package 2: Wind energy estimation, Lead: Angus Graham, Uni ResearchWork Package 3: Offshore deployment and operations, Lead: Thomas Bak, Aalborg University

The board as of March 2017University of Agder: Alf Egil Holmelid (chair)Statkraft: Anne Marie M. SeterlundStatoil: Gudmund Olsen Norwegian Meteorological Institute: Birgitte Rugaard FurevikAcona Flow Technology: Tron SolbergStormGeo: Jostein MælanUniversity of Stavanger: Bjørn H. HjertagerAalborg University: John Dalsgaard SørensenUniversity of Bergen: Finn Gunnar Nielsen

Scientific Advisory Committee, September 2016 from left: Line Storelvmo Holmberg , Finn Gunnar Nielsen, Julie Lundquist, Cecilie Kvamme, Jan Willem Wagenaar , William (Bill) Leithead and Andrea Hahnmann.

at a glance


The Centre Administration (Christian Michelsen Research) Centre Director: Kristin Guldbrandsen FrøysaCentre Coordinator: Annette Fagerhaug Stephansen

The Centre Management Group as of March 2017CMR: Stian Anfinsen, Yngve Heggelund, Annette Fagerhaug Stephansen, Kristin Guldbrandsen Frøysa Uni Research: Angus GrahamUniversity of Stavanger: Bjørn H. HjertagerAalborg University: Thomas BakUniversity of Bergen: Joachim Reuder, Finn Gunnar Nielsen (chair SAC)University of Agder: Kjell G. RobbersmyrNorwegian Meteorological Institute: Birgitte Rugaard FurevikAcona Flow Technology: Tron SolbergStormGeo: Nina Winther-Kaland

Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) as of March 2017Finn Gunnar Nielsen, University of Bergen (Chair)Trond Kvamsdal, NTNU/SINTEF (NOWITECH), Norway William (Bill) Leithead, University of Strathclyde, UK Line Storelvmo Holmberg, Vestas, Denmark Cecilie Kvamme, Institute of Marine Research, Norway Andrea Hahnmann, DTU Wind, DenmarkJulie Lundquist, University of Colorado and NREL, USA Jan Willem Wagenaar, ECN, The Netherlands

Key figuresPhD students: 27Post. docs.: 7Master candidates: 58

Financing (all figures in 1000 NOK)

Contributor Cash In-kind Total

Host 21 872 21 872

Research partners 53 160 53 160

Companies 33 400 28 340 61 740

Public partners 1 339 1 339

RCN 120 000 120 000

SUM NORCOWE FME 153 400 104 711 258 111

RCN infrastructure projects

47 079 8 713 55 792

Affiliated RCN Compe-tence projects

15 915 229 16 144

Affiliated RCN Innovation / FORNY / RFF projects

23 043 18 018 41 061

International, EU FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects

39 500 30 000 69 500

TOTAL 278 937 161 671 440 608

Board from left,front road: Bjørn H. Hjertager, Anne Marie M. Seterlund, Birgitte R. Furevik, Alf Egil Holmelid and Kristin Guldbrandsen Frøysa. Rear road: Nils Gunnar Kvamstø, John Dalsgaard Sørensen, Gudmund Olsen, Klaus Johannsen (observer), Stian Anfinsen (observer) and Jostein Mælan.


SummaryNorcowe’s contribution to the overall objectives of the FME scheme Norcowe has mobilized five Norwegian research institutions in Southern and Western Norway to work on offshore wind energy and renewable energy in general. Norcowe’s focus areas have been operation, maintenance, installation and improved measurements and modeling of wind and waves. The centre has focused on increased energy production and improved operation and maintenance schemes. The centre has used current expertise in meteorology, oceanography and from the oil and gas industry to develop new knowledge and technology for the offshore wind industry. Aalborg University has brought Danish wind power expertise to Norcowe. There is a close cooperation between the research partners, the user partners (industry) and other private and public actors in order to add value to the Norwegian society. The centre is working together with the clusters and industry networks in Southern and Western Norway on the transition from oil and gas industry to a green industry. Education of Master’s and PhD candidates is an important part of this transition.

Research resultsThe universities of Bergen and Stavanger, together with Christian Michelsen Research, have gained considerable expertise in the use of remote sensing equipment. Remote sensing using lidar (Light Detection And Ranging) has been at the heart of Norcowe. Through measurements in onshore and offshore wind farms, we have shown that the use of lidar provides a better understanding of wind profiles, wakes and wind resources. The measurements are combined with modeling and development of improved software for resource mapping and operation and maintenance.

Three measurement campaigns have been carried out, including a comprehensive long-term measurement campaign in the German Bight. The data from these campaigns is used for scientific analyzes and R&D projects in the offshore wind industry.

Norcowe Reference Wind Farm is a fully specified wind farm with 80 10 MW turbines (DTU reference turbine). Real wind and wave data from the FINO3 research platform in the German Bight is used to create the park layout. The reference

PhD students visiting Norwegian Motion Lab.


park is a virtual, but realistic, offshore park. The purpose of the park is to make it easy to investigate various issues, such as how different maintenance strategies affect the price of electricity. Uni Research and Aalborg University have set up the reference park. Everyone can access the specifications and use it to do their own analyzes.

PhD student Ole-Erik Vestøl Endrerud from the UiS was awarded the Sparebank 1 SR Bank Innovation Award for 2014. He received the award for the commercialization of his research on maintenance and logistics of offshore wind farms. The commercialization is done through the company Shoreline.

Useful results for the society in generalThe strengthening of the mechatronics group at UiA and the setup of the Norwegian Motion Lab has significant industrial ripple effects. Mechatronics is a combination of mechanics, electronics and computer technology.

Norwegian Motion Lab has its roots in Norcowe, but it has acquired significantly more private and public capital for the laboratory building and new equipment. The lab is an impor-tant part of the mechatronics education at UiA. The lab has Norwegian and foreign companies on the customer list.

The funding of the Offshore Boundary-Layer Observatory (OBLO) in Bergen has made it possible to carry out compre-hensive and unique offshore measurement campaigns. UiB, UiS and CMR have looked at remote measurements of wind profiles and temperature profiles that can be used to better understand important factors such as turbulence and wakes in offshore wind farms. The data has been documented with standard metadata. The data is used for a wide range of analyses, and we expect the data to be used for many years to come in science and industry. In recent times, new industrial projects have been generated, utilizing the measurement skills and the data.

Users from twelve research institutions and companies outside Norcowe have until now (May 2017) asked for access to the reference wind farm. We expect this figure to rise sharply as more publications with results from case studies based on the reference wind farm are published.

The company Shoreline, which in 2016 had sales of 4.9 million NOK, is a spin-off company from Norcowe (UiS). Shoreline has offices in the United States and Germany in addition to the head quarter in Stavanger.Gwind is a spin-off company based on ideas from Professor Arnfinn Nergaard at UiS. The company has developed a floating vertical axis turbine. A prototype has been in opera-tion for several years, and the company is now targeting renewable power generation for fish farms as its business case.

PhD and master educationThe PhD and Master’s education in Norcowe have taken place at five different institutions in four cities. The students have addressed a wide range of topics. The Norcowe summer school was set up to ensure that all PhD students got a good understanding of the most important issues in the field of offshore wind. The summer school has also been important for connecting PhD students and people from the offshore wind industry together.

The PhD students do an important part of the scientific work in the centre. They have contributed with presentations and posters internally and externally. The PhD students have been challenged to do presentations and take various positions in Norcowe as part of their PhD training.The Master’s students are invited to attend the Science Meets Industry Conference in Bergen and Stavanger in order to get familiar with the offshore wind industry. Furthermore, Norcowe has administered the Hywind scholarship for Master’s students in offshore wind energy. The scholarship is a gift from Statoil.

Master’s students are often associated with Norcowe by using data, software or equipment from the centre. Their supervisor may work for Norcowe and the topic of their Master’s thesis may come from the user partners. Some Master’s candidates are also recruited as PhD students in Norcowe.We have registered at 58 Master’s students in the centre. Many Master’s and PhD students will enjoy the legacy of Norcowe, e.g. by using OBLO, the Norwegian Motion Lab, the reference wind farm or the measurement data.

OBLEX-F1 at FINO1


International cooperationAalborg University is a research partner in Norcowe, and international cooperation is thus part of the daily work in the centre.Norcowe has carried out two international measurement campaigns, namely WINTWEX-W in the Netherlands and OBLEX-F1 at FINO1 research platform in the German Bight.The WINTWEX-W measurement campaign was carried out together with the Dutch research institute ECN and resulted in joint publications.

The OBLEX-F1 measurement campaign was carried out in cooperation with German institutions such as FuE-Zentrum Kiel, DEWI and Fraunhofer IWES, as well as the international user partners AXYS and Leosphere. The measurement data is used in Master’s and PhD theses and in scientific papers. Among other things, there has been a close cooperation with the University of Oldenburg (Forwind) on Master’s theses utilizing OBLEX-F1 data.

Norcowe has four cooperation agreements (MoU), namely with ECN, DTU Wind, Fraunhofer IWES and NREL (USA).The centre has a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) with members from Denmark, The Netherlands, USA, UK and Norway.

Added value by being a centreWhen Norcowe was set up in 2009, the Norwegian research partners had limited insight into the challenges associated with the development of offshore wind. Now, at the end of Norcowe, we see that the partners have a much deeper insight into the challenges and solutions, as well as a more complete picture of the offshore wind industry as a whole. Interdisci-plinary cooperation has been crucial for successful results. Much of the interdisciplinary cooperation has been possible since the centre structure and the centre management have facilitated long-term cooperation across institutions and disciplines. Coordination of the scientific work has been an important goal for the centre management. Dialogue with the user partners through scientific meetings and board meetings has helped ensure the industrial relevance.

For institutions with relatively small scientific groups dealing with wind power, the centre has helped to create a larger and broader scientific community. The centre has represented the partners in various external forums, contributing to the marketing of results and skills at a level the partners do not have the opportunity to individually. The centre serves as a natural point of contact for actors who want contact with an R & D environment for offshore wind, and the centre cooper-ates closely with other clusters and networks.

From left Mostafa B. Paskyabi, Angus Graham, Valirie Kumer, Torge Lorenz and Martin Flügge.


SammendragNorcowes bidrag til FME-ordningens overordnede målGjennom sitt arbeid har Norcowe mobilisert fem norske forskningsinstitusjoner på Sør- og Vestlandet til å arbeide med havvind og med fornybar energi mer generelt. Senteret har hatt fokus på drift, vedlikehold, installasjon og bedre måling og modellering av vind og bølger. På denne måten har senteret bidratt til å rette fokus på inntektssiden og drifts-siden. Senteret har brukt eksisterende kompetanse innen meteorologi, oseanografi og olje- og gass-industrien og utviklet ny kunnskap og ny teknologi for havvindindustrien. Dansk vindkraftkompetanse har kommet inn via Aalborg Universitet. Gjennom et tett samarbeid med brukerpartnerne (industri) og andre private og offentlige aktører bidrar senteret til å utvikle norsk næringsliv. Senteret er en aktiv samarbeidspartner for klynger og næringsnettverk på Sør- og Vestlandet og bidrar på den måten til omstilling i regionen, blant annet gjennom utdanning av master- og PhD-kandidater.

ForskningsresultaterUniversitetene i Bergen og Stavanger har sammen med Chris-tian Michelsen Research opparbeidet seg stor kompetanse på bruk av lidar for fjernmåling av vind. Fjernmåling ved bruk av lidar (Light Detection And Ranging) har stått sentralt i Norcowe. Gjennom målekampanjer i vindparker på land og til havs har man vist at bruk av lidar gir en bedre forståelse av vindprofiler, vindskygge (vake fra turbiner) og vindressursene. Målingene blir kombinert med modellering og utvikling av programvare til bruk for ressurskartlegging og drifts- og vedlikehold.

Tre målekampanjer er gjennomført, blant annet en omfat-tende og langvarig målekampanje i Tyskebukta. Dataene herfra blir brukt til vitenskapelige analyser og til utviklings-prosjekter i havvindindustrien.

Norcowe Reference Wind Farm er en fullt spesifisert vind-park med 80 10 MW turbiner (DTUs referanseturbin). Reelle vind- og bølgedata fra målestasjonen FINO3 i Tyskebukta er brukt for å lage parklayout. Referanseparken er en virtuell, men realistisk havvindpark. Formålet med parken er å gjøre det enkelt å undersøke ulike problemstillinger, for eksempel hvordan ulike vedlikeholdsstrategier påvirker strømprisen. Uni Reserach og Aalborg Universitet har satt opp referanse-parken. Alle kan få tilgang til spesifikasjonene og bruke dem til å gjøre sine egne analyser.

Stipendiat Ole-Erik Vestøl Endrerud fra Universitetet i Stavanger ble tildelt Sparebank 1 SR-banks Innovasjonspris for 2014. Han fikk prisen for sin forskning på, og kommer-sialisering av, vedlikehold og logistikk av offshore vindparker gjennom firmaet Shoreline.

Geir Hovland, UiA og Norwegian Motion Lab.

Hanne Marit Bjørk, Statkraft og Gudmund Olsen, Satoil.


Industrielle og/eller forvaltningsmessige resultaterOppbyggingen av mekatronikkmiljøet på UiA og Norwegian Motion Lab har store industrielle ringvirkninger. Mekatronikk er en kombinasjon av mekanikk, elektronikk og datateknikk. Norwegian Motion Lab har sine røtter i Norcowe, men har siden skaffet betydelig mer privat og offentlig kapital til bygg og utstyr. Den er en viktig del av mekatronikkutdannelsen ved UiA. Norwegian Motion Lab har i dag både norske og uten-landske firma på kundelisten.

Oppbyggingen av The Offshore Boundary-Layer Observatory (OBLO) i Bergen har gjort det mulig å gjennomføre omfattende og unike målekampanjer til havs. UiB, UiS og CMR har sett på hvordan lidarmålinger og profilerende temperaturmålinger kan brukes for å bedre forstå viktige faktorer som turbulens og vindskygger (vake) for havvindparker. Måledataene som har blitt samlet inn, har blitt lagret sammen med metadata på standardformat. Dataene er etterspurt til ulike analyser, og vi regner med at dataene vil bli brukt i mange år framover, både i forskning, forvaltning og i industrien. I den senere tid har det blitt generert flere ny industriprosjekter med utgangspunkt i målekompetansen og måledataene.

Brukere fra tolv forskningsinstitusjoner og firma utenfor Norcowe har til nå (mai 2017) bedt om tilgang til referanse-parken. Vi regner med at dette tallet vil øke kraftig etter hvert

som det kommer flere publikasjoner der parken er brukt i analysene.

Firmaet Shoreline, som i 2016 hadde 4,9 millioner kroner i omsetting, er et spin-off firma fra Norcowe (UiS). Shoreline har kontorer i USA og Tyskland foruten hovedkontoret i Stavanger.

Gwind er et spin-off firma, basert på ideer fra professor Arnfinn Nergaard ved UiS. Firmaet har utviklet en flytende vertikalakselturbin. En prototype har vært i drift i flere år, og firmaet satser nå kommersielt på fornybar strømproduksjon til fiskeoppdrettsanlegg.

Forskerutdanning og masterutdanningForskerutdanningen i senteret har foregått på fem ulike institusjoner i fire byer og det har vært stort spenn i temaene for PhD-arbeidene. Senteret har derfor satset på Norcowe sommerskole for å knytte PhD-studentene sammen og sikre at alle har en god forståelse av de viktigeste problemstilling-ene innen havvind. Sommerskolen har også vært viktig for å knytte kontakt mellom PhD-studentene og industrifolk.

PhD-studentene gjør en viktig del av det faglige arbeidet i senteret, og de har bidratt med presentasjoner og postere internt og eksternt. Ledelsen har hatt fokus på å sikre at

Ole-Erik Vestøl Endrerud (til høyre) mottar innovasjonsprisen for 2014 av SR-banks Rasmus Kvassheim.


stipendiatene får gode utviklingsmuligheter i senteret.Masterstudentene har fått tilbud om å delta på konferansen Science Meets Industry i Bergen og Stavanger. Videre har Norcowe administrert Hywind-stipendet, som masterstu-denter kan søke på for å delta på faglige møter og konfe-ranser. Stipendet er en gave fra Statoil.Masterstudentene er ofte indirekte involvert i senteret. De er gjerne knyttet opp mot senteret gjennom bruk av data, software eller utsyr fra senteret, via veileder eller gjennom problemstillinger formulert av brukerpartnere. Noen master-kandidater er også rekruttert til PhD-studier i senteret.Vi har registrert 40 masterstudenter i Norcowe, men det reelle tallet er høyere. Mange master- og PhD-studenter vil nyte godt av arven etter Norcowe, blant annet gjennom bruk av OBLO, Norwegian Motion Lab, referansevindparken og måledataene.

Internasjonalt samarbeidAalborg Universitet er forskningspartner i Norcowe, og internasjonalt samarbeid er dermed integrert i det daglige arbeidet i senteret.

Norcowe har gjennomført to internasjonale målekampanjer, nemlig WINTWEX-W i Nederland og OBLEX-F1 på målesta-sjonen FINO1 i Tyskebukta.

Målekampanjen WINTWEX-W ble gjennomført sammen med det nederlandske forskningsinstituttet ECN og har resultert i felles publisering av artikler.

Målekampanjen OBLEX-F1 ble gjennomført i samarbeid med tyske aktører som FuE-Zentrum Kiel, DEWI og Fraunhofer IWES, samt de internasjonale brukerpartnerne AXYS og Leosphere. Måledataene har blitt brukt i masteroppgaver, PhD-arbeid og i vitenskapelige artikler. Blant annet har det vært et tett samarbeid med Universitetet i Oldenburg (Forwind) om masteroppgaver.

Norcowe har fire samarbeidsavtaler (MoU), nemlig med ECN, DTU Wind, Fraunhofer IWES og NREL (USA).

Senteret har en Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) med medlemmer fra Danmark, Nederland, USA, Storbritannia og Norge.

Merverdi ved å være et senterDa Norcowe startet, hadde de norske forskningspartnerne begrenset innsikt i utfordringene knyttet til utvikling av havvind. Nå, ved avslutningen av Norcowe, ser vi at partnerne har en mye dypere innsikt i utfordringene og løsningene, samt et mer komplett bilde av havvind-industrien som helhet. Tverrfaglig samarbeid har vært avgjørende for å lykkes, og mye av det tverrfaglige samarbeidet har blitt mulig siden senterstrukturen og ledelsen har lagt til rette for langsiktig samarbeid på tvers av institusjoner og fag. Det har vært fokus på koordinering av det faglige arbeidet i senteret. God dialog med brukerpartnerne gjennom fagmøter og styremøter har bidratt til å sikre industriell relevans.

For institusjoner med relativt små fagmiljøer innen vindkraft, har senteret bidratt til å skape et større og breiere fagmiljø. Senteret har representert partnerne i ulike eksterne fora, og bidratt til markedsføring av resultater og kompetanse på et nivå partnerne ikke har mulighet til hver for seg. Senteret fungerer som et naturlig kontaktpunkt for aktører som ønsker kontakt med et FoU-miljø for havvind, og senteret har et godt samarbeid med andre klynger og nettverk.

Thomas Bak presenterer en oversikt over arbeidspakke 3.

Albert Santiago, Leosphere


The Research Council of Norway (RCN) announced late 2007 an upcoming programme called Centres for Environmental-friendly Energy Research (FME; Forskningssentre for Miljøvennlig Energi). This initiated several independent ideas and initiatives within a variety of fields, among them offshore wind.

In Bergen there were no scientific activities addressing offshore wind energy production. However, some of the major national industry actors, as well as energy companies and suppliers were situated in the Bergen area, and several strong research groups carried out excellent research within fields of crucial importance to this industry.

On this background, some potential partners from research and industry met in June 2008 to discuss common interests. Some of us present at the meeting decided to establish a consortium co-ordinated by CMR with the intention of applying for a centre. The main research partners were the

University of Bergen, Uni Research and CMR, while the most relevant industry partners at the meeting were BKK and Norwind.

Due to close contact with SINTEF, we knew at an early stage that there would be another centre application within offshore wind, later called Nowitech. NTNU, SINTEF and IFE were the research institutions behind this initiative, and a variety of their present industrial project partners had indicated interest to participate. We would have to either co-operate or compete with this consortium. In either case, we would need to present a strong, but complementary profile.

We soon realized that the relevant scientific area where Bergen had an international recognition, and in this context unique competence would be within geophysics. Our applica-tion should focus on the wind field and the dynamic inter-action on different scales (time and space) between the

The history of Norcoweby former research director at Uni Research Svein Winther

Board of Norcowe 2013, from left: Bjørn H. Hjertager, Gudmund Olsen, Birgitte R. Furevik, Kristin Guldbrandsen Frøysa, Annette Fagerhaug Stephansen, Eirik Manger, Svein Winther and Harald Rikheim


The history of Norcoweby former research director at Uni Research Svein Winther

wind field on one hand and the ocean, each turbine and the complete wind farm on the other hand.

The research partners possessed strong scientific groups within relevant areas such as meteorology, oceanography, mathematical modelling, sensor systems and metrology, data analysis, big data etc.

We also knew that Nowitech would not focus on environ-mental issues. Cedren (Centre for environmental designed renewable energy) would, within the field of wind energy, concentrate on birds. With a strong marine ecology group, we therefore decided to include marine environment. The industry knew that lack of knowledge within this field could be a potential showstopper due to the precautionary prin-ciple.

However, discussions between the research partners and companies like Norwind, Vestavind Kraft, BKK, Statoil and Statkraft revealed that the industry wanted a stronger technological profile. Therefore, even before clarifying a co-operation with Nowitech, we decided to invite UiS and UiA and extend the scientific range of research areas to include topics like marine operations, mechanical systems, mainte-nance, communication systems and sensor technology. We knew that SINTEF was strong in these fields, but contacts in Trondheim told us that these research groups would not be included in Nowitech. This opened an area to us. UiS and UiA had in addition an extended co-operation with the University of Aalborg (AAU).

CMR then coordinated the preparation of an application,

mainly written by the research partners. The Research Council had two application deadlines. September 3, 2008 was the deadline for step 1. This was some sort of pre-qualification which we had to pass to be invited to step 2 with a deadline December 3, 2008. We got the results of the prequalification from RCN October 24, 2008. After having got the feedback, there were discussion and meetings in order to find the best way forward. The first choice was to give Nowitech the possibility to include all of Norcowe in a common centre. The following negotiations did not produce a satisfactory result for the Norcowe partners, and AAU was included in the centre to strengthen the technology profile. The research groups at AAU had already a strong research positions within opera-tion and maintenance of wind farms, as well as power control and prediction. In addition, they had extensive experience with co-operation with the turbine manufacturers and energy companies.

Shortly after, we wrote the first draft of the final application in a two-day meeting in Aalborg November 18 and 19, 2008. The industry partners did not take part in this process, which we later realized was unfortunate considering the priority of the research topics. On December 3, 2008 the final applica-tion was submitted to the Research Council.

Norcowe was awarded FME status in February 2009.

WP-leaders 2010: Trygve Skjold (from left), Ivar Langen, Arnfinn Nergaard, Idar Barstad and Joachim Reuder.

From the official opening of Norcowe in 2009: Hans Otto Haaland (RCN) (from left), Gunnar Bakke (Mayor of Bergen) and Eivind Olav Dahl (CMR).


The vision of NorcoweNorcowe is an interdisciplinary resource centre for exploita-tion of offshore wind energy as a natural sustainable energy source.

The vision of Norcowe is to combine Norwegian offshore technology and leading Danish and international communi-ties on wind energy in order to provide innovative and cost efficient solutions and technology for large water depths and harsh offshore environments.

It is a goal that Norcowe will help building strong clusters on offshore wind energy in Norway by developing new knowl-edge and by providing skilled persons for the industry.

StatusBringing down the Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is the challenge Norcowe was set up to help solve.

Did Norcowe contribute to lower LCOE and to fulfil the vision? YES!

• Has worked interdisciplinary • Has combined offshore technology and leading Danish

and international competence on wind energy• Has considered challenges related to harsh offshore

environments• Has contributed to build strong clusters on offshore wind• Has developed new knowledge • Has provided skilled persons for the industry

Vision and goals

Gwind prototype in Stavanger harbour.

Figure Finn Gunnar Nielsen


WorkplansThe user partners were not heavily involved in defining the scientific goals and the work packages when Norcowe was set up. Many user partners and scientific partners were new to the offshore wind business and much of the scientific plan-ning was done in a bottom-up fashion.

During the first years of Norcowe, it became clearer in what topics the user partners had a particular interest. It became evident that there were too many small subtasks and too many topics.

The cash funding from the user partners were reduced between 2010 and 2014, because many user partners left the centre. This made it even more important to concentrate on fewer topics, in order to get more out of the funding and to make the Norcowe attractive to potential user partners. The board thus made a major revision of the work plans in 2012. The number of work packages was reduced from five to three, effective from January 1, 2013. Assessment of the environmental impact (impact on the marine and benthic life) and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) were taken out of the work plans. The Norcowe Reference Wind Farm and the measurement campaigns were set up, acting as integrating and structuring activities in the centre.

Seabed mapping at Havsul-1.

Overview maintenance and operation. Figure courtesy John Dalsgaard Sørensen.

CMG-members: Charlotte Obhrai, Angus Graham, Joachim Reuder, John Dalsgaard Sørensen and Lene Sælen.


Research in Norcowe Norcowe Reference Wind Farm (NRWF)by Claude R Olsen

The idea of making Norcowe Reference Wind Farm (NRWF) was presented in September 2013. The idea of having a fully specified offshore wind farm to be used in science and business turned out to be a good idea that required lots of work. The baseline definition was ready in 2015, and there are several studies utilizing NRWF. So far, analyses of various O&M schemes have been in focus.

In the wind power industry, margins are small and every detail counts when it comes to increasing production and reducing costs. Researchers in Denmark and Norway have created a reference wind farm for testing out new solutions to find the best alternative – before a single wind farm component is produced.

The reference wind farm is not a physical entity, but a model that uses genuine wind and wave data. Under the auspices of the Norcowe, researchers from Aalborg University (AAU) and Uni Research, have built a comprehensive model of a wind farm with 80 10-MW wind turbines. Wind and wave data are imported from the FINO 3 met mast in the German North Sea.

“We came up with the idea of making a reference wind farm because we wanted to help cut the costs of producing energy at wind farms. Each time a wind farm is planned, the deve-lopers review a number of factors to optimise the process. We realised there was a need to test various scenarios without having to build an entire wind farm first,” says Professor Thomas Bak from AAU.

Amongst the many factors affecting energy production costs are the wind conditions at the farm’s intended site, the type of wind turbines selected, and the chosen options for installa-tion, cabling and operation and maintenance. The standard approach so far has been to take an existing wind turbine and test it with different options.

An interface of multiple technological areasWhat is unique about Norcowe’s reference wind farm is that it incorporates models from an array of technological areas into the same model.

Professor Thomas Bak from the Department of Electronic Systems (AAU) invites industry players and researchers to test out new solutions using Norcowe’s reference wind farm.

The reference wind farm is based on wave and wind data collected at the FINO 3 met mast.


Research in Norcowe

“This allows researchers and industry players to come with their suggestions and see if they generate better or worse results. The advantage is that you don’t need to be an expert in every area in order to use the model. You can focus on your own solution and still find out how any particular adjustment affects energy costs,” says Professor Bak.

The reference wind farm is not designed for planning entire wind farms, but can be used to analyse various elements, for example, to determine the optimal cable solution. Engineers can test out new solutions using the reference wind farm and thus try out multiple solutions before drawing up detailed specifications.

New layout results in eight percent increase in energy productionIn order to demonstrate how the model can be used, researchers have designed an unconventional layout of 80 wind turbines arranged along irregular curvilinear rows, which departs from the standard layout with wind turbines standing in straight, parallel rows. Estimates show that this alternative layout would supply eight percent more energy than the industry standard, but that it carries a higher investment cost.

Placing the wind turbines as shown in the illustration on the left will increase energy production by eight percent. Illustration: Angus Graham

Researcher Angus Graham from Uni Research has played a key role in developing the reference wind farm.

From oil to windScientists at Aalborg University have worked for many years within planning of operation and maintenance on offshore oil and gas installations. They have now taken a major leap in applying this knowledge to operation and maintenance of offshore wind farms.

Many wind farm components have relatively high failure rates which translates into high maintenance expenditures. As a rule of thumb, operation and maintenance accounts for up to 25–30 percent of the cost of producing energy.

Norcowe researchers have developed a model that can be used to plan what the cost of operation and maintenance will be, and thus to determine which technologies are best value. The data used in the reference wind farm are based on figures published in the body of research literature.

These data on the expected volume and severity of errors are used to calculate the costs of different maintenance strategies. It is not just the lifetime of components that is important, but also the weather window open to technicians for servicing the wind turbines. Some types of vessels can be used in high seas, but these are generally also the ones that are most expensive.


Ten percent of maintenance costs savedBased on data obtained from wind turbine owners in a different project, Norcowe researchers have looked at opera-tion and maintenance costs for wind turbine blades. Mainte-nance activities may cover repair when something goes wrong or fixed-interval inspections by technicians who replace parts when fractures are discovered. Alternatively, maintenance can be based on prognoses forecasting the probability of a breakdown. Researchers can use the reference wind farm to substitute different components and see how this affects costs. Frequent parts replacement will cost more, for instance, but it will decrease the incidence of fractured wind turbine blades.

Professor John Dalsgaard Sørensen and his PhD students have estimated how much operation and maintenance costs may be reduced.

“We have calculated that wind farm owners can save from five to ten percent on costs related to wind turbine blades. But this depends on when in the course of a component’s lifetime the decision is made to replace it,” says Professor John Dalsgaard Sørensen at the Department of Civil Engineering at Aalborg University, who has headed this segment of the project.

Scientific articles about the reference wind farm are to be published in 2017.

Norcowe Reference Wind FarmWind and wave data: Measured values from the FINO 3

research platform in the North Sea

Installed capacity: 0.8 GW

Number of wind turbines:

80

Turbine type: DTU 10-MW Reference Wind Turbine (diameter: 178 m; nacelle height: 119 m)

Mean water depth: 23 m

Turbine foundation type:

Monopile

Distance to grid connection:

80 km

Further information is found at the Norcowe Reference Wind Farm website. https://rwf.computing.uni.no/

Cutting costs by wind measurementsby Claude R Olsen

Extensive testing in three countries has proven that laser measurements of wind provide precise, reliable wind data. The research findings will make it more profitable to develop and operate wind farms.

Profit margins from wind farms are small and sometimes even negative. Detailed knowledge about the wind conditions around each turbine can be critical for a wind farm’s profit-ability. However, there has been a lack of reliable data on how meteorological conditions affect power production, particu-larly in offshore installations. Up to now, measurement data have been limited to spot measurements taken with mast-mounted instruments. These only provide measurements for a specific location and do not measure conditions at the same elevation as the large turbines, which can be 200 metres tall.

Norcowe researchers have tested methods for accurately measuring wind using lasers (lidars). The methods can give wind farm owners and energy suppliers an entirely new under-standing of how wind affects energy production.

Important new knowledgeThe main objective behind the four years of extensive testing in three countries has been to characterise wind flow patterns around a single wind turbine and an entire wind farm. The wind interaction for turbines in the front row of a wind farm is different from those placed behind. Turbines behind the first row will be exposed to less wind and more turbulence

Professor John Dalsgaard Sørensen.


than if they had stood in isolation. This phenomenon, known as the wake effect, can lead to far lower energy production in practice than theory would predict, and can cause consider-able wear on the turbines.

At the core of the new method is a lidar, an instrument that measures wind speed using lasers.

“We wanted to understand the wake effect in detail and needed something better than a mast which remains fixed when wake and wind are in constant flux. We needed instru-ments that were more flexible and lidars are perfect for this purpose,” says Professor Joachim Reuder at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Bergen (UiB).

He has headed a group of researchers affiliated with the Norcowe in Bergen.

Initial testing at Stavanger AirportLidar instruments have been on the market for a number of years, but to find out whether laser measurements were useful for wind farms the Norcowe researchers travelled to Stavanger Airport in 2013. On site they tested a scanning lidar capable of examining a large slice of airspace and two static Doppler lidars which measure air column wind speed directly above the instrument up to nearly 3000 metres.

The measurements taken with the scanning Doppler lidar were compared with those taken by equipment that meteo-rologists use when deploying weather balloons to measure wind speeds at different altitudes. It was a perfect match.

“We wanted to find out how well the lidar could provide wind profiles up to two to three kilometres and how it measured land-sea boundary layer transitions. The tests showed a high correlation,” Professor Reuder says.

Onshore in the NetherlandsIn Wieringermeer, north of Amsterdam, the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has installed a number of test turbines. In autumn 2013, Norcowe researchers set up three static lidars and one scanning lidar around a standard 2.5 MW wind turbine. In addition, two lidars were placed at the top of the turbine to measure horizontal wind in front (inflow) and behind (wake) the turbine. The measurements were compared with wind measurements taken by the traditional method at a nearby mast. The measurements, recorded from

Professor Joachim Reuder.

Wind measurements at Stavanger Airport showed that scanning lidars could be used to measure wind speeds accurately.


November 2013 to May 2014, generated a vast amount of data that researchers continue to analyse and can further delve into.

“This yielded very important information about what the wake (the wind field behind the turbine) looks like, its movements and how it changes over time, as well as the role played by the temperature distribution over height (i.e. atmospheric stability). We learned a great deal about how to use the lidar correctly,” Professor Reuder adds.

One interesting discovery is that the wake effect is greatest under stable wind conditions, which is known as stable atmo-spheric stratification. Onshore, this occurs primarily during the winter and at night. The least amount of wake occurs when turbulence is high, for example during the daytime in the summer.

At sea in GermanyAfter documenting that lidars are well-suited for measuring wind speeds at different elevations in front of and behind a wind turbine, the Norcowe researchers were ready to take the next step and focus on an offshore wind farm under the OBLEX-F1 measurement campaign that kicked off in spring 2015.

In cooperation with several German research institutions, Norcowe partners and equipment suppliers, researchers from UiB and CMR have carried out extensive air and sea measure-ments at FINO1 research platform close to the Alpha Ventus wind farm in the German Bight. The wind farm has 12 turbines, each 5 MW.

During the experiment, one scanning lidar measured winds flowing into the wind farm, while another measured the wake behind the turbines. A static lidar measured wind speeds at various heights along the mast on FINO1. In addition, two static lidars were placed on buoys floating outside the wind farm. The researchers also collected vast amounts of other meteorological and oceanographic data. The experiments were carried out from May 2015 to October 2016.

“These experiments were by far the greatest accomplish-ment of the Norcowe centre. The measurement campaign was unique and the most extensive campaign of its kind undertaken so far. We were able to test several new methods specifically targeting the characterisation of turbulence. The results are promising, but we must take a closer look before we can say anything more than that,” says Professor Reuder.

The experiments near the Alpha Ventus wind farm have made the Norcowe centre and its partners world leaders in the use of scanning lidars at sea. A number of scientific and other articles about the experiments will be published. The industry

The equipment is being rigged to the measurement platform FINO1 near the Alpha Ventus wind farm as part of the OBLEX-F1 offshore measurement campaign.

The WINTWEX-W campaign: Measurements taken by a lidar are compared with measurements taken by a number of other methods at the wind farm in Wieringermeer in the Netherlands.

Schematic of the instrumental setup during the WINTWEX-W campaign.


is eagerly awaiting the results and hoping for fast answers. One of the interested companies is Statoil.

“Both the research on lidar technology and the trial campaigns are very interesting. As part of the efforts to model wind fields correctly and, thus, simulate the right wind loads for the wind turbines, we are looking forward to the results of analyses based on data from the measurement campaign at FINO1,” states Marte Godvik, Principal Researcher at Statoil. She also held a presentation on wake and large floating wind turbines during the Norcowe conference, Science Meets Industry, in Stavanger in spring 2016.

An important component of the experiments was testing lidars mounted on buoys. They were equipped with motion-compensation systems to enable them to measure the exact airspace targeted by the researchers. These tests were also successful and have contributed to the commercialisation of new technology developed by Norcowe partners.

“Setting up a mast offshore is expensive and generates a limited amount of information. Putting a lidar on a buoy with motion compensation and towing it out is both a faster and cheaper way to map wind resources for new offshore installations. It also generates more knowledge about wind layers than using a mast. There is now proof of concept for lidar technology and we believe lidars will become the new gold standard for offshore wind measurement,” says Benny Svardal. He has received considerable attention from Norwe-gian and international industry stakeholders and research partners interested in the findings from the experiments.

MaintenanceWind turbines can be considered as structures that are in between civil engineering structures and machines since they consist of structural components and many electrical and machine components together with a control system. Further, a wind turbine is not a one-of-a-kind structure but manufac-tured in series production based on many component tests, some prototype tests and zeroseries wind turbines. These characteristics influence the reliability assessment. Level-ized Cost Of Energy (LCOE) is very important for wind energy, especially when comparing to other energy sources. There-fore, much focus is on cost reductions and improved reliability

Benny Svardal, researcher at CMR and project manager of the OBLEX-F1 campaign.

Marte Godvik, principal researcher at Statoil.

Risk-based maintenace has been a key topic at AAU.


both for offshore and onshore wind turbines. The wind turbine components should be designed to have sufficient reliability level with respect to both extreme and fatigue loads but alsonot be too costly (and safe). In probabilistic design the single components are designed to a level of reliability, which accounts for an optimal balance between failure conse-quences, cost of operation & maintenance, material costs and the probability of failure. Furthermore, using a probabilistic design basis for reliability assessment it is possible to design wind turbines such that site-specific information on climate parameters can be included.

Health assessment of pitch and yaw systems for offshore wind turbines at UiA

Although pitch and yaw systems were often on the list of components with frequent failures, they were not a top priority for condition monitoring in the onshore wind turbines. This is due to the fact that they are easily replaceable in the case of onshore wind. However, in case of offshore wind turbines, any unplanned maintenance activity is expensive due to their location and challenging due to short weather windows. Therefore, it is worthwhile to evaluate the pitch and yaw systems for condition monitoring and remote health assessment. Through remote health assessment, the maintenance personnel can detect incipient faults and plan the maintenance ahead of failures. Such planning results in economizing on logistics, inventory and resources. However, health assessment of these systems poses significant chal-lenges as they operate intermittently and at low speeds.

At UiA, the electrically operated pitch & yaw systems are being evaluated for condition monitoring and health assess-ment. The research is focused on answering the following questions:

a. What is the nature of the pitch and yaw system operations in typical wind conditions? Can the incipi-ent faults be reliably detected under such operating profiles?

b. What methods and techniques are suitable for detec-tion? Are they suitable for farm-level implementa-tion?

c. Is reliable failure prediction (prognosis), that is sensi-tive to operating conditions, feasible?

In order to answer these questions a laboratory setup, shown in Figure 1, is built. It includes a multistage planetary gearbox and an induction motor controlled through a vari-able frequency drive while the blade root loads that are experienced by the pitch drive are generated using a load motor through a bevel-planetary-helical (BPH) gearbox. The objective of this setup is to simulate various seeded faults described in Table 1, in the pitch motor and the gearbox and evaluate detection capabilities. In order to assess the feasi-bility of diagnostics in realistic conditions, the 5 MW refe-rence wind turbine is simulated in FAST tool to generate pitch speed profile and blade root load profiles. The motor faults are then diagnosed using motor current signature analysis (MCSA) and the planetary gearbox faults shall be diagnosed using vibration based methods.

As a first step, the rotor on the pitch motor is replaced with a damaged one as shown in Figure 2 and the 3-phase motor currents are then analyzed using MCSA. The principle of MCSA is that any change in the motor’s electrical or magnetic circuit will produce a periodic disturbance in the electrical fields. This disturbance is then detected using Fourier analysis on the supply currents.

The Fourier analysis results for the machine with healthy rotor and with faulty rotor are shown in Figure 3. The analysis is performed on a motor operating at a speed greater than 1000 RPM and the current signals were analyzed for only 2 seconds. It can be seen that the broken rotor bar fault is clearly visible in that short period of constant speed opera-tion.

Figure 1 Laboratory setup with pitch drive (left) and load motor with BPH gearbox (right).

Figure 2 Faulty rotor with 3 rotor bars partially broken.


Subsystem Component Faulty type

Pitch Drive

Motor

Broken rotor bars

Stator winding fault

Worn bearings

Gearbox

Planet gear fault

Sun gear fault

Carrier plate cracks

Table 1: Failure modes that will be seeded in the lab setup.

All the motor faults described in Table 1 are now simulated.Further, methods will be developed to predict the damage progression and time to failure, in order to assist in mainten-ance planning.

Norwegian Motion Labby Claude R Olsen

The two “ship decks” are rolling and heaving, but the payload at the end of the crane stays completely still. In a labora-tory in Grimstad, Norway, researchers and industry actors are conducting simulations of how to transfer payloads and personnel from a ship to a wind turbine – or between vessels – in rough seas.

The state-of-the-art platforms are located at the Norwegian Motion Lab at the University of Agder where the partners in Norcowe have contributed to building a national laboratory to simulate wave-induced motion. These efforts will benefit the research community as well as the industry. The objective of the research and testing activity is to make it possible to transport a payload between vessels in rough seas without the use of cables or other physical connectors.

At the core of the laboratory are two six-legged platforms that can imitate wave movements in detail and simulate two vessels in heavy sea. Just watching the largest platform twist and turn is enough to make an onlooker seasick.

“Here we can test how to transfer a payload safely from one ship to another in bad weather. Or we can test walkways designed to extend from a supply vessel to a wind turbine,”

Figure 3 Comparison of Fourier spectrum of healthy motor (a) and faulty motor (b).


states Professor Geir Hovland of the University of Agder, who has been part of Norcowe and the development of the Motion Lab from the outset.

The laboratory, established with funding from the Research Council of Norway, Norcowe and the University of Agder, has expanded knowledge on how to steer a ship’s cranes in order to compensate for wave motion. It has presented students with many challenging tasks from the industry based along the southern coast of Norway in particular, and has led to several doctoral degrees. The University of Agder has been awarded funding for five doctoral and three postdoctoral fellowships.

Advanced six-legged equipmentThe Norwegian Motion Lab has two Stewart platforms, one large and one small, which make it possible to simulate the effect of wave motion on two vessels in minute detail. Each platform has six legs which can be controlled separately. The platforms can move back and forth (sway), from side to side (surge) and up and down (heave) and can rotate around three axes (roll, pitch and yaw). This is the same technology used in

airplane simulators.

Configuring all the components to work together in the laboratory poses a wide range of challenges. Simulating ship movements in waves requires many calculations and the transmission of data between components. The crane is supposed to be able to compensate for all movements and keep the tip of the crane completely still. These data are supplemented by the use of advanced position trackers affixed to the walls of the laboratory.

Together with CMR in Bergen, the University of Agder is investing in a mobile Stewart platform. It will be based at CMR and be used in measurement campaigns. It will be operational from Summer 2017.

The University of Agder is in the process of registering the equipment under the European Commission’s map of Networks of National Research Infrastructure. This will help to increase the international visibility of the Norwegian Motion Lab.

From left: PhD student Sondre Sanden Tørdal, technical lab manager Witold Pawlus and Professor Geir Hovland in front of the platforms that enable industry and researchers to test new technology in “rough sea” conditions.


ApplicationsFrom safe crane operations to autonomous shipsTwo Stewart platforms make it possible to simulate the effect of wave motion on two vessels in minute detail. The accuracy of the Stewart platforms is better than one millimetre. Accuracy when compensating the motion using an industrial robot is within 3–4 cm for even the largest “wave movements”.

The objective is to develop a system to assist crane operators and make lifting operations safer and easier. Reliable motion-compensation systems will also make it easier to carry out service on offshore wind turbines – both bottom-fixed and floating. However, PhD student Sondre Sanden Tørdal, working on enabling communication between all the compo-nents of the Motion Lab, is setting his sights even higher. “The research conducted at the Motion Lab will help to auto-mate onboard operations such as repairs of an autonomous vessel. This means that another autonomous vessel can be used to deliver spare parts. For safe payload transfer to be possible, each vessel will have to be equipped with onboard sensors that calibrate themselves to one another so that the crane knows exactly where the other ship’s deck is,” he says.

Testing lasers, life boats and cranes in rough seasTwo Norcowe lidars were tested in 2011 to assess how sensi-tive they were to wave-induced motion when mounted on a buoy. Lidars employ lasers to measure wind speed. If the laser is swaying back and forth with the waves one would expect the measurements to be highly inaccurate. However, as the tests showed, when researchers calculated the average measurements collected over a ten-minute period, the wave motion had negligible effect on the wind speed measure-ments. Based on the extensive testing, a lidar mounted on a floating buoy was used in the OBLEX-F1 measurement campaign at the Alpha Ventus offshore wind farm in the German Bight.

In a separate test, Marintek examined what happens when a lifeboat is launched as a vessel suddenly moves. The researchers in Trondheim, Norway, employed a model lifeboat complete with instrumentation and released it towards the ground as the larger Stewart platform was descending at top speed. The floor was covered with duvets and mattresses to prevent damage to the lifeboat. The researchers were in this way able to obtain data on the lifeboat’s movements under extreme conditions.

MacGregor Norway AS, a company located in Kristiansand, has tested the use of sensors on its cranes when transferring a payload between vessels. The company is one of the world’s leading suppliers of heave-compensated cranes to the ship-ping and offshore industries, and has had a close cooperation with the University of Agder for many years.

Certifying measurement equipmentThe high-precision measurement capability of Motion Lab’s equipment makes it very well suited for testing Motion Refer-ence Units (MRU), an instrument frequently used by the oil and gas industry and the offshore wind industry. MRUs are used to track a vessel’s position and movements.

Several companies have visited the laboratory for MRU certification. Kongsberg Gruppen, Automasjon and Data AS in Sandnes, Norway, and Inertial Labs in the US have all used the precision data on platform motions from the laboratory as the underlying reference framework for their own equipment. Three years ago, Motion Lab was granted status as an inde-pendent third party for MRU certification.

Predictive modeling for short term wind power forecastIt is often said that the best way to know the future is to look at the past. By exploring patterns, trends, and relationships between various instances in historical data sets one aims to derive generalization rules and create a predictive model. Predictive model can be seen as a customized mapping func-tion between a set of input data fields and target variables. When it comes to large-scale offshore wind power produc-tion, a fast and accurate prediction of wind power is critical for optimal schedule and utilization of the energy. Wind power forecasting is closely related to wind speed forecasting, and if deterministic models are either too complex or require too long time for acquiring the results, mining the historical data can become the best way to obtain the required prediction.

Machine learning is used throughout the scientific world for handling the “information flow” and data mining. Developed from the artificial intelligence community, machine learning is a method of data analysis that automates predictive model building. Using algorithms that iteratively learn from data, machine learning allows computers to find hidden insights without explicit instructions on where to look. The iterative aspect of machine learning is important because as models are exposed to new data, they are able to adapt, i.e. to learn from previous computations to produce reliable results. After a predictive model is built, has learned from data, and is validated, it is able to generalize the knowledge and predict the future.

Machine learning models are prone to both underfitting and overfitting problems, therefore data pre-processing is extremely important in order to create the successful predic-tive model.


For wind energy industry, planning and optimization one of the most important prediction horizons is a short time ahead (beyond 12 hours and up to 48 hours ahead). That is especially useful for wind energy penetration, electricity trading and grid integration. To increase the accuracy of prediction one might select to use local information at the wind turbines instead of numerical weather prediction (NWP). In such circumstances, a machine learning pattern-based approach is the best way to get the accurate predictions. Even if there is a gap between the requirement of prediction accuracy and current achievements, the rapid progress in machine learning that arose from new big data and deep learning concepts is opening a new horizon for predictive modeling.

An example of a machine learning application to wind energy forecast has been demonstrated. There, data from Sher-ingham Shoal wind farm was used to train the model for wind speed prediction 10 to 180 minutes ahead. In addition, NWP data from European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model, with a grid spacing of 0.7º in latitude and longitude has been used to improve the accuracy of the prediction.

For lead time up to about 45 minutes the machine learning based model with power output time series is shown to be more accurate (RMSE for one hour’s lead time is 8% maximum rated farm power) and the model with added NWP data is shown to be more accurate for longer lead times (RMSE for 3 hours’ lead time was 10% of maximum rated farm power).

As it was presented, the model with added NWP data can operate with fewer input parameters and can therefore be trained faster and with less training data. It was also concluded that NWP data added to energy production time series allows implicit categorization of energy production data.

Alla Sapronova, rearcher at Uni Research.

Results on models validation for 10 to 180 minutes ahead wind prediction. The figure illustrates the comparison of forecasting errors (RMSE) on validation data for three type of predictive models: machine learning based only (orange), with added NWP data (yellow), and persistence model (blue).

Sunset at Sheringham Shoal


Operation and maintenance decision analysis for DugdeonFollowing a successful partnership developing the Sher-ingham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of North Norfolk in UK, Statoil and Statkraft are working together on developing the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm, of which Statoil will be the Operator for both the construction and opera-tional phases. A final investment decision for the ambitious project has been made in July 2014. Offshore construction will start in 2016 and the project aims for full production in 2017. Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm will be constructed with 67 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 6 MW, totalling 402 MW installed generation capacity. The annual energy production is estimated to be 1.7 TWh providing enough renewable energy to power approximately 410,000 homes.

Based on a successful collaboration between the Cluster on Industrial asset management (CIAM) of University of Stavanger and Statoil, the PhD project began with Prof.

Jayantha P. Liyanage of UiS as the Main advisor and Dr. Nenad Keseric from Statoil Wind Operations as the co-supervisor. Statoil wind operation department has recognised the poten-tial of the agent-based model developed during first phase of the PhD and proposed to utilise it for decision analysis on the Dudgeon wind farm as a test case.

The purpose of the decision analysis was to compare and give indication on the most cost-efficient marine logistic solution for Dudgeon wind park with given historical weather pattern. Two advanced vessel solutions and a conventional personnel transfer vessel (PTV) solution were analysed with aim to provide a sound basis for deciding which one of these solutions is most suited to meet the desired regularity, cost and risk. The life cycle cost of such a facility is very large and is a financial risk for investors, and with 25-30% of that being costs related to operation and maintenance, reducing this cost is a prime factor for mitigating financial risk. In collaboration with Statoil operation and maintenance (O&M) department, a new marine logistics solution for offshore wind parks was analysed and suggested consisting of two innova-tive vessel solutions (surface effect ship (SES) and service operation vessel (SOV)) that are quite unique and new to the offshore wind industrial sector.

Ole-Erik Vestøl Endrerud, PhD student at UiS and founder of Shore-line. Text written Summer 2014.


The impact of NorcoweInnovation and value creationNorcowe has mobilized research groups at UiA, UiB, Uni Research, UiS and CMR to work with offshore wind energy. By doing so, we have extended the offshore wind community in Norway with respect to topics and geographical area. Norcowe has played an important role in pointing out the importance of good resource assessment and the value in maximizing the annual energy production (AEP). Wind profiles, waves and loads have been linked together in a nice way in Norcowe by multi-disciplinary work.

Having offshore wind research groups is important for building the offshore wind industry along the South and

Western coast of Norway. This was clearly seen when the offshore wind industry in Norway had a dip due to high oil and gas prices. Since the universities kept working on offshore wind, there were skilled candidates available when the Nor-wegian offshore wind industry started to recover.

Norcowe has close cooperation with clusters like NCE Marti-time Cleantech, GCE Subsea and Norwegian Offshore Wind Cluster. There was a close cooperation with Arena NOW, and Science Meets Industry was organized together with Arena NOW as long as Arena NOW was operating. The cooperation with the clusters and networks fits well with the triple helix concept that we think describes a good framework for innova-tion and value creation.

Norcowe staff has been involved in dissemination work towards public bodies, private companies, organizations, students and pupils. It has been important to point to the

“To reach our goals within offshore wind it is important to have a close connection with the research community”.Gudmund Olsen, project leader of R&T Floating Offshore Wind at Statoil

“The close collaboration between Norcowe and the emerging offshore wind companies of the Arena NOW cluster has been essential in bringing the industry and the R&D community together.” Asle Lygre, director Arena NOW

Asle Lygre

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Ols

en


The impact of Norcowe“To improve the understanding of the wind resources is one of the key aspects to lower the cost of energy of offshore wind. The research Norcowe has done within this field is therefore of high value to us. Also the competence that Norcowe has acquired with regards to mapping the resources in form of measurement campaigns and in particular the use of lidars offshore is of great interest to us.”Henriette Undrum, Vice President at Statoil’s Research & Technology Future Value Chains.

Henriette Undrum


challenges and opportunities of offshore wind energy and to provide a sound decision basis for the decision makers.

The Research Council of Norway (RCN) has published a long list of success criteria for the FME centres.One success criterion is that “The centre’s research activity has generated or is expected to generate the potential for innovation and enhanced competitiveness among user part-ners and expectations about ramifications for society over and above the partners’ direct participation in the centre’s activities”. There has been a strong focus on utilization of the results in order to unlock the potential for value creation and innova-tion from Norcowe. The TRL level of the Norcowe projects has been assessed and the board has had a strong focus on progress and getting results on a reasonable TRL level.The board, the centre director, the centre manager group and the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) have focused on making sure that the work plans address major scientific and industrial challenges.

Major innovations include advanced measurement schemes for lidar measurements of turbulence and coherence, Norcowe Reference Wind Farm, the offshore wind farm module for WRF, the oceanographic measurement platform MATS and spin-off products like the Gwind floating VAWT and Shoreline’s O&M software.

Active user partners are essential to unlock the potential for value creation. The Matthew effect of accumulated advan-tage is clearly seen. Those user partners investing time in Norcowe have been able to utilize the results and the general knowledge in the centre and to influence the research plans for Norcowe.

Our experience is that targeted workshops and meetings addressing specific topics are good ways of presenting results and make fast use of the results. There have been several workshops with topics like turbulence and turbulence measurements, waves and their impact on structures and linking different scales (from km to mm, days to milliseconds). Important issues have been identified at the workshops, and some of these are being addressed in separate follow-up projects outside Norcowe.

The number of spin-off projects from Norcowe have increased significantly over the last year. The results from Norcowe will be harvested by the offshore wind energy community for many years, e.g. through use of data from our measurement campaigns and by using the reference wind farm for various case studies.

Part of Norcowe’s value creation is “negative”, i.e. results and competence from Norcowe help our partners to avoid severe mistakes. It is hard to assess the value of this, but it is an important part our mission.

Nina Winther-Kaland (from left), Chad Jarvis and Kjell Gunnar Robbersmyr.


Norcowe experiencesStormGeoAt the Norcowe 2016 conference some of our user partners were invited to present their view of Norcowe, in terms of impact and usefulness. StormGeo and Statoil have been active members of the centre, and were happy to share their experience. Jostein Mælan, Vice President Renewables at StormGeo, says that participation in Norcowe has been important for gaining a position in the market. “To be part of a such a research centre leads to higher credibility in the market, as you have close contact with a high number of researchers and several other business partners who share their insights and experiences. As Norway has no home market for offshore wind, the local network that Norcowe has offered has been even more important.”

StormGeo obtained their first contract within offshore wind in 2009, the year that Norcowe started, and are now giving operational forecasting for more than 40 offshore wind farms. StormGeo has had two industrial PhDs within offshore wind during the Norcowe period. They successfully defended their PhDs at the University of Bergen and the University of Stavanger in 2013 and 2014 respectively, and have partici-pated at the Norcowe summer schools and the various work package meetings, conferences and workshops organized by the centre. The value of Norcowe in this context is undispu-table, says Jostein Mælan.

StatoilStatoil has been an active member of Norcowe, with examples including taking initiative to and hosting various workshops, participating with presentations and lectures at Norcowe conferences and summer schools.

2009 was the year that Statoil started testing the world’s first full-scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, while the first floating pilot park, Hywind Scotland, is due in operation in 2017. Several projects within Norcowe have focused on control and loads on floating wind turbines, drawing together researchers and PhD students at the University of Agder, Aalborg University and the University of Stavanger. The effect that turbulence and wake have on large floating wind turbines is a hot topic for Statoil, as their own investigations show that the chosen turbulence model has an important effect on loads and therefore on fatigue life.

Statoil has also provided the co-supervision of PhD student Ole-Erik Vestøl Endrerud, a collaboration which has resulted in the start-up company Shoreline. The company now provides a software that eases the decision with regards to operation and maintenance (O&M) through the possibility of running various simulation scenarios and estimating the costs. Statoil was the first company to take the software into use, doing simulations of the wind farm Dudgeon. “If we are to be competitive internationally we need to rapidly decrease the levelized cost of energy, and decreasing the expenditures on O&M through optimization is one effective way of doing it,” says Gudmund Olsen, project leader of R&T Floating Offshore Wind at Statoil. Gudmund Olsen has been Statoil’s board member since 2011.

People from 9 different partners at turbuence workshop hosted by Statoil February 2016.


Scientist Eirik Manger, Acona Flow Technology

How has Norcowe added value to your own work?First of all, Norcowe provided an arena for collaboration with other researchers and research groups while working on modelling related to offshore wind turbines. Since Acona Flow Technology (AFT) were relatively new to this field and just getting engaged, the network around Norcowe became a valuable tool in marketing AFTs services and trying to estab-lish additional activities and spin offs.

The second part of added value, which perhaps was one of the main reasons for joining Norcowe, is access to measurements and data. Verifying models and simulations is important, and results from the extensive measurement campaigns performed within Norcowe add additional opportunities in this direction.

What has for you been the most interesting/enjoyable part of Norcowe?Since being relatively fresh in the field, learning about the industry and the processes around offshore wind turbines has been one of the most interesting parts of Norcowe. Being able to see the dimensions and scales during site visits was a great experience.

I also enjoyed the sessions on “Science Meets Industry”. The blend of both advanced academic lectures in combination with industry specific themes and challenges truly set the stage for some interesting presentations and events.

Lastly, I would like to mention the blind tests/predictions on small-scale wind turbine performance, organized in conjuga-tion with NOWITECH. These seminars gathered a variety of modelers, and the measurements leading up to these events are unique in terms of possibilities to calibrate models and verify simulation capabilities.

Has the participation in Norcowe led to any positive unan-ticipated event?Although not comprised into some single event, as well as not entirely unexpected, the collaboration with University of Stavanger (UiS) has been very fruitful. The work done on wave/wind interaction received large attention, as the results indicated that old waves (swell) affect the entire marine boundary layer, and thus also have more impact on wind turbine performance than initially assumed. The findings have inspired others, and are also looked for during measurements – hopefully this work will be followed up.

Lately there has also been collaboration between UiS and AFT around waves’ impact on structures. This direction was also partly unanticipated, but very positive in my view.Eirik Manger now works at Norsk Hydro.

Effects of centre for the host institution and research partnersProfessor Jasna Bogunović Jakobsen, UiSHow has Norcowe added value to your own work?Norcowe has given me a great opportunity to further the knowledge of the offshore wind conditions in relation to wind turbine loads and energy production. My former knowledge of the structural response due to turbulence and the wind-structure interaction has been challenged and expanded when dealing with the highly complex flow conditions encountered by the wind rotor blades and the entire wind turbine structure. This has been very exciting and rewarding.

Eirik Manger

Jasna Bogunović Jakobsen


“Through the years of Norcowe, CMR has had the great opportunity to strengthen our existing competence AND to dive into new research areas. I would especially empha-size our work related to planning and execution of scientific measurement campaigns combined with data analysis and the competence we have acquired related to reduced order model-ling applied to wind farm layout optimization. “Stian Anfinsen, Department Manager CMR

Monitoring and modelling of met-ocean conditions has been among the key topics in Norcowe, and I was thus exposed to the state-of-the-art wind monitoring techniques based on the remote optical sensing. I had the opportunity to explore such measurement data to characterize offshore turbulence and wind turbine wakes. This paved a way for a novel applica-tion of lidars in the field of bridge engineering, in a pioneering study involving several Norcowe scientists.

What has for you been the most interesting/enjoyable part of Norcowe?One of the most enjoyable things about Norcowe has been the people and the networks developed through the centre! I have appreciated interacting with a number of Norcowe scientists, industry partners and the external researchers connected to Norcowe. Meeting places such as the regular work package meetings, meetings with industry and the DeepWind confer-ences have all been important arenas for stimulating discus-sions and development of new ideas. It has also been very enjoyable to work together with the young enthusiastic researchers and take part in the related work of the Norcowe scientific committee. Planning and participating in two of the summer schools arranged by Norcowe has been nice and inspiring.

I also appreciated a shorter involvement in the centre management group. I am very impressed how well the interaction between the different research partners and the individuals have been orchestrated and developed during the lifetime of the centre!

When it comes to the scientific work, the opportunity to both dive into the selected problems and get an overview over the entire range of the topics relevant to the planning, design and operation of wind farms has been useful.

At my own department, the cross-disciplinary nature of the wind turbine engineering has also led to an increased collabo-ration between the scientific staff normally dealing with quite separate topics.

Has the participation in Norcowe led to any positive unan-ticipated event?As described above, one of the unexpected and very exciting outcomes of the participation in Norcowe has been the opportunity to explore the application of lidars in the bridge engineering context. A fruitful collaboration with the scien-tists from the University of Bergen and Christian Michelsen Research, and the Technical University of Denmark at a later stage, as well as the support of the centre leader group to explore such cross-disciplinary possibilities, has been instru-mental to realize this unique study.

Stian Anfinsen


Professor Peter M. Haugan, UiBHow has Norcowe added value to your own work?Norcowe has provided a working network of colleagues in different disciplines related to offshore wind. It has widened my perspective and opened up opportunities for new collabo-ration.

What has for you been the most interesting/enjoyable part of Norcowe? Meeting and talking to students. In particular I liked inter-actions at the summer school that I had the opportunity to attend (and help organize) but also at the various events like annual meetings, work package meetings and Science Meets Industry. Norcowe has been very good at stimulating exchange of expertise and advice at such occasions.

Has the participation in Norcowe led to any positive unan-ticipated event?I am very happy that the Geophysical Institute and the Univer-sity of Bergen has been able to dedicate base funding to a full time professorship in offshore wind. This shows that those in Norway who perhaps know most about offshore wind, believe in its potential, and in Norwegian involvement.

The impact of Norcowe at UiB:• Developed research competence (publications) in new

fields• Significant contribution to education on MSc and PhD

level• Changing research profile at department level• Full professorship in offshore wind• Significant research infrastructure (OBLO) • New internal collaborations among departments at UiB• Research basis for (parts of) new energy education at

UiB/HVL (2-year master now, 5-year master from 2017)• Strengthening of ties to some partners we already knew

(CMR, StormGeo, Statoil,…)• Links to “new” partners (UiS, UiA, AAU, …)• Some visibility in European energy research (EERA)• Some visibility in broader parts of UiB, Bergen and Nor-

way

Uni ResearchDuring Norcowe, Uni Research conducted research in offshore wind energy within the topics of wind resource assessment and power forecasting; optimisation of turbine structure, installation and layout; and environmental impact assessment. Two PhD studentships in offshore wind were supported and successfully completed, and thirteen related publications published or accepted for publication in the international peer-reviewed literature (a further two are currently in review).

Sixteen spinoff wind-energy projects were executed, with international funding from the Danish Hydraulic Institute and Research Council, Lockheed Martin and the UK Carbon Trust. A strong and enduring international network was built up, including theTechnical University of Denmark and US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and work undertaken on several Wind-Energy Tasks of the International Energy Agency.

Training of researchersAll four universities in Norcowe have offered courses and master programs where offshore wind energy is in focus. Aalborg University was the only one of these who had a background with offering PhD education within offshore wind, but the other three rapidly followed up. At the Univer-sity of Bergen (the Geophysical Institute) there has been a close collaboration with Uni Research and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET) in offering PhD students the necessary supervision and guidance. The Geophysical Institute has also expanded their knowledge on instruments and measurement techniques to deal with challenges relevant for the offshore wind industry, resulting in MScs and PhDs within these subjects. The University of Stavanger has used their competence within structural loads, aerodynamics and offshore logistics when initializing PhDs within offshore wind. At the University of Agder, the establishment of Norcowe led to an accelerated development of a PhD program within mechatronics, with the first Norcowe PhD student defending

Peter M. Haugan

IMR, CMR and Uni Research scientists at WP2 meeting.


his thesis in 2013. In total there have been 24 PhD students directly involved with the centre, with a further 3 associated with the centre.

As the partners in Norcowe are spread geographically over large distances, it has been very important to stage regular meetings. The PhD students have in addition participated at the Norcowe summer school, which has been arranged yearly in the period 2010-2015. The summer school has been a way to ensure that the PhD students have seen the larger picture of which their research form a small part. The industry partners have been encouraged to take part, mostly in form of lecturing. The themes of the summer schools have also varied, and group work has formed an important part of the week-long school. The summer school has been open to people outside of Norcowe, and has received positive reviews from students from universities like DTU Wind and TU Berlin. Also people from the offshore wind industry, external to Norcowe, have participated. The maximum number of participants was reached in 2015, when 28 persons participated in addition to the lecturers. A large number of the Norcowe PhDs have mentioned the summer school as a highlight in their Norcowe involvement, citing the possibility of having easy access to experienced researchers and industry personnel as an impor-tant factor in addition to the social networking. Of the 27 PhD students involved with Norcowe 8 have been

Norwegian and 1 has been Danish. To attract well qualified Norwegian PhD students and Post Docs has been impor-tant to the centre, but the competition with the oil and gas industry in particular has been a challenge. The absence of a visible home market may also be a factor for many as they consider future employment. The same may be said with regards to Master students. As the job market in Norway has been mostly favorable during the existence of the centre, the number of Master students who have continued to do a PhD within the centre is very low indeed.

Master students have been encouraged to participate at the Norcowe meetings and conferences, giving them a possibility to both learn and present their results, both orally as part of

“Red Rock is a Tech Company that supplies advanced handling products to the Marine and Offshore segment. Appointment of PhD candi-date Magnus B. Kjelland has provided Red Rock with important and necessary expertise in product develop-ment. Red Rock believes that the above-mentioned and similar doctoral degree is of utmost importance to supply advanced products to the market done with the right competence in our company. “Vidar Hansen, chair Red Rock board.

“The basic idea behind the summer schools has been to give the students a wider perspective upon the chal-lenges related to the develop-ment of offshore wind energy and to be able to put their own specialized thesis into a broader context.”Finn Gunnar Nielsen, chair of SAC and responsible for Norcowe summer schools

Magnus B. Kjelland


the official program and through posters. Master students have also been encouraged to apply for a travel scholarship sponsored by Statoil and administered by Norcowe, which has been an offer open to Master students only.

Employment of PhD-candidates (number)By centre company 1By other companies 3By public organisations 1By university 3By research institute 2Outside Norway 8Total 18

Entered into the table above are numbers related to the persons who completed their PhD in Norcowe and whom we have managed to trace. Several persons are still to defend their PhD.

From petroleum to offshore wind energy Lene Eliassen, was working in the petroleum industry when the Norcowe Centre announced funding for its first doctoral fellowships.

“I was looking for new challenges and applied for a research fellowship position in Stavanger. I was one of the first doctoral fellows at the Norcowe Centre and I quickly got to know the other researchers in Bergen and Grimstad (Norway) as well as Aalborg (Denmark).”

She began working on her doctoral degree in 2010 while there was still widespread interest in the petroleum industry in offshore wind energy, and she had a co-supervisor from Statoil.

Her doctoral work focused on identifying the aerodynamic loads on the rotor blades of floating wind turbines in strong winds and how these forces affect the wind turbine as a whole. The conventional method calculates for a rotor that remains stationary, i.e. does not move into and away from the wind. But Dr Eliassen was able to include the movements of the entire wind turbine in her calculations, which requires additional computational time. By using a graphics processing unit rather than a computer’s central processing unit for her calculations, she achieved a significant reduction in computa-tional time.

As a wind turbine blade rotates, the wind forces will help to reduce the tower movement on a floating offshore wind turbine. At a certain ratio between rotation velocity and eigenfrequency of the wind turbine, however, the size of this reduction diminishes. The most common methods for calcu-lating forces on wind turbines do not take this into account, which in turn leads to lower estimates of fatigue damage than what will actually occur.

Dr Eliassen completed her doctoral degree in 2015 and landed a post-doctoral fellowship position at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Dr Eliassen is currently (May 2017) on maternity leave, but starts in a new position at Sintef Ocean in August 2017.

From offshore wind energy to petroleum Tore Bakka, had just completed his Master’s thesis at the University of Agder (UiA) when his supervisor alerted him to a coming funding announcement for doctoral fellowships in offshore wind energy at the new Norcowe Centre.

“It was pure coincidence that I got into wind energy,” he recalls. “But it turned out to be a great period in my life, and the pay was generous compared to doctoral fellowships in other countries. It’s a bit surprising that more people don’t pursue a doctoral degree.”

Dr Bakka studied how floating wind turbines can operate within the speed range in which the wind turbine generates maximal output, up until the point when excessive wind speed causes the turbine to shut itself down to avoid damage (cut-off speed).

As his starting point he used numerical models from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which has developed models for different kinds of wind turbines, including Statoil’s Hywind. The models enable scientists around the world to simulate wind turbines, as suppliers tend to be unwilling to reveal data on their wind turbines. Dr Bakka tested different methods for regulating a floating wind turbine based on the wind conditions immediately

Lene Eliassen


surrounding the turbine, and not least how turbulence affects it. He developed regulation methods that improved on the standard versions.

Instead of continuing in the offshore wind industry, however, Dr Bakka chose to apply his expertise in the petroleum industry. He took a job at National Oilwell Varco (NOV) Norway in Kristiansand where he worked on improving the hydraulic system used on offshore cranes and making them more stable. Everything was fine until the downturn in the petroleum industry hit full force and NOV trimmed back its staff by two-thirds, including Dr Bakka. He has now (May 2017)a position at Cameron.

Industrial PhD in offshore wind energyOlav Krogsæter, was employed as a meteorologist at Storm-Geo when he saw the funding announcement for a doctoral fellowship in the newly launched Norcowe Centre at the University of Bergen. He submitted an application, but before it was processed his employer offered him the chance to earn a doctoral degree under the Research Council of Norway’s Industrial Ph.D. scheme instead.

“Doctoral work under the Industrial Ph.D. scheme is co-funded by the Research Council and industry, so I could be employed at StormGeo and at the same time work 100% on my doctoral degree at the University of Bergen,” says Dr Krogsæter.

For his doctoral project he studied how weather forecasting models can simulate wind and temperature in the atmo-spheric boundary layer, where offshore wind turbines are located. As it turned out, the models were poorly suited for

forecasting conditions over the ocean surface; they are better for use over land with the aid of many more weather observa-tions.

Dr Krogsæter set up different variations of the forecasting model and compared them with actual measurement data from the meteorological mast FINO-1. Located at the Alpha Ventus offshore wind farm in the German Bight, the mast records wind speeds and temperatures from the ocean surface up to an altitude of 100 m.

There were quite large differences between the models, but by fine-tuning the models and entering new equations for turbulence, he identified a few settings that produced reliable forecasts.

After completing his doctoral degree in 2013, Dr Krogsæter stepped into a newly established researcher position at StormGeo where he refined the forecasting models. With the decline in the petroleum industry, however, the weather forecasting service company experienced a reduction in its project contracts. In connection with cutbacks in spring 2016, Dr Krogsæter returned to his original position as a meteoro-logist.

Tore Bakka

Olav Krogsæter


Collage from Summer schools


“Norwegian Offshore Wind Cluster have appreciated the collaboration with Norcowe. We will especially emphasize coop-eration on the event Science Meets Industry. These confer-ences have been very important for the exchange of informa-tion about new innovations and are an important place for the industry to meet the research institutes.” Arvid Nesse, Manager Norwegian Offshore Wind Cluster

“Talking with the teachers from the industry gives a perspec-tive we do not experience very often in academia. In addition, it is valuable to get acquainted with scientists working with other topics than yourself”. A student’s reflection on the summer school

Communication & dissemination To keep a public profile, Norcowe has maintained a rather active webpage and sent out an average of five newsletters a year to a very large number of subscribers. With an increasing international interest for Norcowe activities, the measure-ment campaigns in particular, several of our web articles have been republished at websites like offshorewind.biz. Also Norcowe summer schools and conferences have been publicized here. This has allowed us to reach a large number of persons outside our immediate network.

Norcowe has established a yearly conference called Science Meets Industry, which has taken place in Stavanger in spring and in Bergen in the autumn. The conferences have been held in collaboration with Greater Stavanger, Arena NOW, Bergen Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Norwegian Offshore Wind Cluster, GCE Subsea and NCE Maritim CleanTech. The conference has succeeded in establishing itself as a meeting place for the industry, as typically between 30 and 60 percent of the participants have been from outside of Norcowe. The program has also been varied, with presentations from both within and outside of Norcowe, from academia and from the industry. The Norcowe network aims to continue these conferences also after the end of the Norcowe centre.

Norcowe has arranged a number of workshops, in particular internal workshops, in order to improve dialogue with the industry partners. The workshops have also been successful in aiding cross-disciplinary exchanges by examining different aspects of the same question. Examples of workshop topics are relevant scales in space and time, turbulence and shallow water waves. The workshops have often been hosted by Norcowe’s industry partners in collaboration with the Norcowe administration.

Best poster award EWEA Offshore 2015 Yngve Heggelund (left) and Chad Jarvis from CMR.

Arvid Nesse


Collaboration with international partners has been crucial in developing Norcowe’s expertise within offshore wind. An obvious example is the measurement campaigns that Norcowe has undertaken to both increase the knowledge regarding the offshore boundary layer as well as gaining experience with using the lidar technology for wind measure-ments. The investment in lidar technology prompted a close collaboration with the French lidar producer Leosphere, which subsequently became a Norcowe partner.

After initial testing in Norway, Norcowe proceeded with wind measurements for examining the wake effect of a turbine. The measurement campaign, WINTWEX-W, was a key aspect in the collaboration with the Dutch ECN, with whom an MoU was signed. ECN has a strong position internationally, having a leading role within the EERA network, which it helped found. ECN has a large test site for wind turbines and is also responsible for gathering North Sea wind measurements for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

International

In addition to ECN’s and Norcowe’s common research based on the measurement campaign WINTWEX-W, one of ECN’s employees decided to enrol in the PhD program at Aalborg University; a PhD jointly financed by ECN and Norcowe. The ties with ECN have also been strengthened through the EERA joint network and ECN’s participant Jan Willem Wagenaar in the scientific committee of Norcowe.

The OBLEX-F1 campaign is a very extensive measurement campaign undertaken by Norcowe in an offshore wind farm location outside of Germany. The campaign has fostered close collaboration with German research partners like FuE-Zentrum Kiel , ForWind, DEWI and Fraunhofer IWES. Norcowe and ForWind have in collaboration supervised three master students, who have been working on data from the campaign. The campaign has also led to exchange of measurement data between the participating institutions.

cooperation

Field work at ECN Wieringermeer Geir Pedersen (from left), Benny Svardal, Peter Eecen, Valerie Kumer and Jan Willem Wagenaar.


NREL, the National Renewable Energy Lab, is situated in the United States and has a National Wind Technology Center in Boulder, Colorado. Norcowe’s collaboration with NREL and the University of Colorado includes co-hosting a workshop, extended visits by Norcowe PhD students, research visits and collaboration within the IEA wind task regarding the definition of reference wind farms. Norcowe and NREL signed a MoU in 2012. Julie Lundquist, associate professor at the Univer-sity of Colorado with a joint appointment at NREL, is part of Norcowe’s scientific advisory committee.

Of the research institutes in Norcowe, Aalborg University and University of Stavanger have participated in an EU project within the specific subject of wind energy. AAU was already well established within wind energy research before the start of Norcowe, but have also used ideas which have been partially developed within Norcowe to participate in new projects. We now also see a tendency that the Norwe-gian research partners are being invited to participate in EU project proposals as well as other projects financed from non-Norwegian sources.

For instance, the University of Stavanger, is participating in the project DeRisk, led by DTU in Denmark, where they are drawing on research undertaken within Norcowe regarding wave impact on structures. Also Uni Research is participating in a joint project with DTU and DHI, drawing on Norcowe-funded work on coupling wind and surface-wave models. The University of Bergen and CMR have participated in recent H2020 applications using their experience with offshore measurement campaigns, and are also active within the EERA network. Finally, the University of Agder has within Norcowe improved their skills and capabilities within mechatronics, which in turn has led them to participate in the recently started EU project named CLOVER together with the Norwe-gian company Red Rock Marine.

Norcowe has participated at several international fairs, and had a stand at EWEA Offshore in 2013 and 2015 in collabora-tion with Arena NOW and Innovation Norway. Norcowe also co-hosted a seminar at the EWEA Offshore 2013, where some of our research was showcased to an interested audience. The annual report has been actively used at such events in order to give an accessible overview of Norcowe’s activities and competences. Another conference where Norcowe has been particularly active is the annual Japan Norway Science Week. The Norcowe centre leader has participated in the planning, organized sessions and held presentations, in close collabora-tion with the University of Bergen (UiB). There has also been cooperation with Japanese companies.

Finally, the participation in EERA (through CMR and UiB) as well as in several IEA wind tasks has been important in order to showcase the centre’s competence, as well as to participate in pinpointing knowledge gaps within wind energy. These fora are also particularly important when it comes to networking within the international research and policy community. Norcowe is in 2017 involved in three different IEA wind tasks (32: “Wind lidar systems for wind energy deploy-ment”, 36: “Forecasting for wind energy” and 37: “Wind energy systems engineering: integrated R, D&D”). Uni Research has a leading role in IEA wind 37.

The benefit of being part of a centre like Norcowe has been highlighted by all the research partners. In addition to providing long term financing and therefore development of ideas, the centre has managed to become well known within the offshore wind research community, has hosted inter-nationally attended PhD schools and established meeting places between the industry and the research community. All these factors have increased the standing of each research institution within Norcowe and further enabled international research collaborations of great value.

Panel debate with all the speakers in the Offshore Wind session at Japan-Norway Science Week May 2015.


Future prospects and conclusions

Norcowe will continue as a research network. The network will act as a single point of contact for private companies and public bodies. Major tasks are supporting project generation, organize Science Meets Industry, cluster-to-cluster coopera-tion and dissemination.

The application for a new FME centre on offshore wind was not approved. This is a significant drawback for the Norwe-gian and the international offshore wind community. The long-term coordinated effort offered by a FME centre cannot be replaced by a bunch of individual projects, even if the project volume may be the same. The measurement campaign OBLEX-F1 and the specification of Norcowe Reference Wind Farm are two examples of results that require an FME centre to come true.

The measurement campaigns have made Norcowe known internationally and paved the way for scientific cooperation with major international research institutions. The number of current and proposed projects based on OBLEX-F1 data are significant, and the data is used to address a wide range of issues.


Future prospects and conclusionsThe Norcowe management has put much effort into securing the data from the measurement campaigns and making the data easily available for the users. A web portal is set up to simplify data selection and data extraction, and the data is securely stored for the future.

We foresee an increased interest in lidar measurements of wind profiles as the offshore wind turbines now move towards 10 MW and the rotor diameters approach 180-200 meters. A better understanding of the wind profiles in the marine atmospheric boundary layer is crucial for design purposes, wind resource assessment and for maintenance and operation. This includes an improved understanding of the link between atmospheric stability, wind profiles and turbulence.

Large floating turbines have highlighted the need for measurement data to improve the turbulence modeling for load calculations.There are now (May 2017) several industry projects addressing topics related to these issues involving Norcowe partners. Norcowe has set focus on the income part of the LCOE equation and on operation and maintenance. This has been important, as much of the Norwegian research focus has been on grid connections, substructures and the turbines itself, i.e. on the equipment.

Norcowe has linked competence on wind and waves and their impact on offshore wind turbines together in a nice way. Monitoring and modelling of met-ocean conditions has been among the key topics in Norcowe. State-of-the-art wind monitoring techniques based on remote optical sensing

PhD students at Summer school 2015.


are used to characterize offshore wind turbulence and wind turbine wakes. The results are applied in load calculations for large wind turbines. Norcowe has also paved the way for a novel application of lidars in the field of bridge engineering, in a pioneering study involving several Norcowe scientists.Improved methods and standards for design and opera-tion of offshore wind farms are needed in order to bring the costs down. Reliability and risk-based planning of O&M and condition-based maintenance for offshore wind farms have been in focus through the centre’s lifetime.

We think that the cross-disciplinary work fostered by Norcowe is important to solve some of the major challenges in bringing down LCOE and that it has helped to close knowl-edge caps for the offshore wind industry.

If we are to reach the low-carbon society in a near future, legal, social and economic issues must be solved together with the technical challenges. We think the Norcowe partners are able to do so.

Norcowe partners are well positioned for getting new pro-jects from Horizon2020, RCN and directly from the industry. The partners have also proven the ability to utilize the skills acquired through Norcowe in new applications. The FME scheme is altogether a successful scheme. It gives the research partners time to build long-term competence because there is long-term funding. There are many PhD students and some post. docs and there are great possibili-ties for creating new collaborations and open new research fields. There is time to develop a long-term relation with the user partners and to adopt the research in order to meet the needs the user partners have.Successful management of an FME centre requires clear goals, a common understanding of the challenges, an active board and a dedicated centre management group.A weakness is that the FME funding can be used to continue current research and current cooperation patterns so that the FME funding hardly adds any value.

The Norwegian petroleum industry has been through a severe crisis over the last years. This combined with large activity in

Assembling Hywind Scotland turbine at Stord April 2017.


the offshore wind industry in UK, Germany and Denmark has led to an increased interest in offshore wind from the Norwe-gian maritime industry and the oil and gas vendor industry. We hope that the interest in the offshore wind industry will continue, even if the petroleum industry should recover in the near future.

It is too early to assess the impact of Norcowe. In many cases, Norcowe is one of many factors behind a new process, a new project or an innovation. We expect that the partners and the society will harvest from Norcowe in at least ten year, and that the final assessment of Norcowe’s impact maybe should be done around 2030.

Alf Holmelid, chair of Norcowe Board.


Contact info

Kristin Guldbrandsen Frøysa, Centre DirectorAnnette Fagerhaug Stephansen, Centre Coordinator

Postal AddressFME-NORCOWEChristian Michelsen Research ASP.O. Box 6031NO-5892 Bergen, Norway

Visiting AddressChristian Michelsen Research ASFantoftvegen 38Bergen, Norway

post(at)norcowe.noKristin(at)cmr.noweb: www.norcowe.no

Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy

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