Aker Solutions and Cognite have been awarded a $2 million grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) for a project called NextWind Real Time Condition Monitoring.
The project is focused on next-generation solutions in wind through digitalization and aims to develop a holistic digital solution that will enable monitoring the condition of an offshore floating wind farm and its impact on the environment via live data streaming.
Aker Solutions, partnering with Cognite, was selected for the grant award as part of the California Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC).
“This program aligns with Aker Solutions’ ambition to develop the offshore wind market in California, providing affordable renewable electricity to the state with the lowest possible environmental footprint and in peaceful coexistence with other ocean users and the local community,” says Luis Araujo, CEO of Aker Solutions.
“We are grateful to the CEC for trusting us with this important task and we look forward to starting this meaningful work,” he adds.
A digital twin model of physical offshore wind assets will be developed to assess conditions and integrity management. This real-time information will allow access and analysis of data to help reduce operating expenses and maintenance costs by improving production efficiencies. Making this data available to a wide range of users will allow for an additional understanding of environmental and wildlife impacts to help reduce mitigation.
In April 2018, the Redwood Coast Energy Authority selected a consortium that includes Aker Solutions, Principle Power and EDPR Offshore to enter into a public-private partnership to pursue the development of the proposed Redwood Coast Offshore Wind Project. The 100-150 MW floating offshore wind farm is planned to be located more than 30 km off the coast of Humboldt Bay and is expected online in the mid-2020s.
Photo: Aker Solutions’ landing page
