NATURSEA-PV
Running
The main objective of NaturSea-PV is to improve the overall lifetime, reliability, and maintainability of marine substructures for offshore floating PVs and thus reduce its LCOE. For this, NaturSea-PV will develop innovative structural designs capable of handling the marine conditions, at the same time ensuring the durability and minimizing (un)installation costs.
background
NatureSea-PV relies on the eco-UHPC as an efficient material to build offshore floating PV substructures with improved reliability and maintainability, remaining operational for decades. This implies the development of the material, and the redesign of the components that make up the substructure, by considering materials performance and the harsh conditions of the sea. In addition, more environmentally friendly coatings will be developed to increase the resistance to corrosion and fouling of the materials present in facility (metal, glass, concrete…). Improved computational tools for materials subjected to marine conditions will also be developed, calibrated and validated using the experimental results obtain during the testing and validation of materials and components.
OBJECTIVE
The main objective of SUREWAVE is to develop and test an innovative concept of Floating Photo-Voltaic (FPV) system consisting of an external floating breakwater structure made of new circular materials acting as a protection against severe wave loads on the FPV structure itself, allowing increased operational availability and energy output.
The main objective of SUREWAVE is to develop and test an innovative concept of Floating Photo-Voltaic (FPV) system consisting of an external floating breakwater structure made of new circular materials acting as a protection against severe wave loads on the FPV structure itself, allowing increased operational availability and energy output.
Contact
William Otto
Senior Project Manager
SCOPE
NaturSea-PV will develop a lily-inspired PV solution to meet the specific needs for Offshore Floating PV. The lily’s concept of radial and tangential girders will be researched and engineered using lightweight, flexible eco-UHPC elements. The concrete girders will provide support to a lightweight sheet, which spans the construction like an umbrella. This sheet will have openings to ensure sufficient sunlight reaches the water surface, and it will provide sufficient carrying capacity for the PV panels as well as maintenance technicians. These openings will also serve to minimize the risk of uplift and buckling by wind. To reduce the effect of the waves, the concrete web will be raised well above the water by small diameter floating columns. Elevating the construction above the water surface will prevent wave overtopping and reduces the overall wave excitation and formation of fouling in the PV panels.
The wave induced dynamics and associated mooring loads of each conceptual design will be calculated with MARIN ’s in-house Software aNySIM-XMF and Seacall. The software can be used to calculate the response to waves for monohull and multi-hull vessels and at arbitrary speed and heading. Several seakeeping relevant quantities, such as accelerations, relative motions, drift forces and internal loads are possible output parameters. As the construction is anticipated to be flexible, these simulations will be fully coupled hydro-structural calculations, including the elastic mode shapes. With the superposition of modes, the linearized velocity potential problem is solved using a threedimensional source distribution technique.
BUDGET & PLANNING
The project started October 1 2022 and will run for 3 years with a budget of 3,2 million euros.
PARTNERS
The project is coordinated by Tecnalia (Spain). Other partners cooperating in this project are Universite De Bordeaux, Unicersity Collega Cork, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Universidad Deal Pais Vasko, Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior, Warrant Hub, Prefabricados Formex Sociedad Limitada, R&D Concretes Sociedad and MARIN.
NaturSea-PV will develop a lily-inspired PV solution to meet the specific needs for Offshore Floating PV. The lily’s concept of radial and tangential girders will be researched and engineered using lightweight, flexible eco-UHPC elements. The concrete girders will provide support to a lightweight sheet, which spans the construction like an umbrella. This sheet will have openings to ensure sufficient sunlight reaches the water surface, and it will provide sufficient carrying capacity for the PV panels as well as maintenance technicians. These openings will also serve to minimize the risk of uplift and buckling by wind. To reduce the effect of the waves, the concrete web will be raised well above the water by small diameter floating columns. Elevating the construction above the water surface will prevent wave overtopping and reduces the overall wave excitation and formation of fouling in the PV panels.
The wave induced dynamics and associated mooring loads of each conceptual design will be calculated with MARIN ’s in-house Software aNySIM-XMF and Seacall. The software can be used to calculate the response to waves for monohull and multi-hull vessels and at arbitrary speed and heading. Several seakeeping relevant quantities, such as accelerations, relative motions, drift forces and internal loads are possible output parameters. As the construction is anticipated to be flexible, these simulations will be fully coupled hydro-structural calculations, including the elastic mode shapes. With the superposition of modes, the linearized velocity potential problem is solved using a threedimensional source distribution technique.
BUDGET & PLANNING
The project started October 1 2022 and will run for 3 years with a budget of 3,2 million euros.
PARTNERS
The project is coordinated by Tecnalia (Spain). Other partners cooperating in this project are Universite De Bordeaux, Unicersity Collega Cork, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Universidad Deal Pais Vasko, Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior, Warrant Hub, Prefabricados Formex Sociedad Limitada, R&D Concretes Sociedad and MARIN.
Horizon Europe
NaturSea-PV acknowledges funding by the European Union through the Horizon Europe research programme under grant agreement No.101084348.
For more information: www.natursea-pv.eu
For more information: www.natursea-pv.eu
