Launch of VAMOS/FLOTEOLE, a Franco-German research project for deep-water offshore wind energy

A good understanding of floating offshore wind turbines is essential to decrease the uncertainties and risks – and thus the costs – of this very promising technology. The project “Validation, Measurement and Optimization of Floating Wind Energy” (VAMOS) addresses this challenge with a large-scale measurement campaign and a validation study. The knowledge gained will be used directly for the design of an improved turbine controller to enhance the dynamic behavior and reduce loads. In the long term, this will allow for lighter weight and cheaper turbine designs.
 

First co-funded German-French research project on floating wind energy

For the first time, a research project on floating wind energy is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy and the French Regional cluster West Atlantic Marine Energy Community.
Seven partners are cooperating in the joint project VAMOS for 36 months:
 

• Stuttgart Wind Energy (SWE) at the University of Stuttgart,
• the Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics and Atmospheric Environment at Centrale Nantes,
• the Institute for Fluid Dynamics and Ship Theory at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH)
• sowento GmbH,
• and GL Garrad Hassan Deutschland GmbH, UL International GmbH and Ideol, as associated partners.

The measurement campaign will be conducted on France’s first offshore wind turbine, FLOATGEN. It uses Ideol’s Damping Pool® floating technology installed at the SEM-REV test site, the first European site for multi-technology offshore testing connected to the grid. Two wind LiDAR systems will be installed on the full-scale demonstrator for a six-month measurement campaign to obtain wind measurements on the inflow and the wake side.

Different multidisciplinary simulation methods of varying modeling fidelity will be developed. A large validation study, comparing the results of the measurements of the inflow and the wake with those of the simulations, will be performed. The wake measurement campaign will be performed through the French project FLOATEOLE funded by WEst Atlantic Marine Energy Community. It focuses on experimental characterization of platform motions’ influence on the aerodynamic behavior of floating wind turbines and their wake. The wake of the floating wind turbine is especially relevant for the design of floating wind farms, where wake interactions generate production losses and may increase fatigue.

The long term goal of VAMOS is to design cheaper offshore wind turbines and increase its share in the energy market

Currently, bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines dominate the offshore wind sector. However, floating offshore wind turbines push the boundaries and potential of offshore wind by being deployable in deeper waters. VAMOS will decrease the cost of floating offshore wind turbines and thus enable exploitation of the offshore wind resources without depth constraints. This will allow regions and countries to increase the areas they can use for offshore wind energy.
 

Further information: https://www.ifb.uni-stuttgart.de/en/research/windenergy/projects/vamos/