U.K. research center to support offshore wind industry

The Centre for Intelligent Asset Management (CIAM) is a partnership between the University and SgurrEnergy, a renewable energy consultancy will develop techniques to improve the availability of offshore wind farms.

The UK wind industry is planning large offshore wind farms, some at considerable distance from shore and in deeper water. Round 3 sites are from 13 to 195 km from shore compared with 12 km for the most distant existing offshore wind farms. There is an urgent need to ensure that offshore wind turbine availability is underpinned by appropriate approaches to operations and maintenance supported by intelligent asset management. Glasgow is aiming to become a center of excellence in offshore wind through development of the ITREZ (International Technology and Renewable Energy Zone).

To facilitate such a project, funding has been granted for a centre to develop and demonstrate offshore and onshore wind-turbine-asset management to help Scotland meet its ambitious renewable energy targets. The facility is to be opened at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

The Centre for Intelligent Asset Management (CIAM) is a partnership between the University and SgurrEnergy, a renewable energy consultancy, part of Wood Group, and will develop techniques to improve the availability of offshore wind farms and reduce need for expensive reactive offshore maintenance. The University, SgurrEnergy, and David Brown Gear Systems recently unveiled plans for a new £2.35M Centre for Advanced Condition Monitoring (CACM) – a research hub for academics and industry, developing new approaches in wind technology condition-monitoring design in the centre of Glasgow.

The partnership will work alongside the CACM and the University’s Wind Energy Systems Centre Doctoral Training (CDT), which is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to provide high level training to PhD students to help address the skill shortage in the renewables sector. CIAM will support the UK’s rapidly growing offshore wind industry. Estimates suggest by 2050, offshore wind could be worth £65 billion to the UK and could support hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Centre for Intelligent Asset Management