What is the problem/issue being addressed?
1 - Assessing the future performance of a wind farm
The average duration of a wind farm is 20 to 25 years. Being able to predict the long-term profitability of a wind farm project is essential for the players involved in the exploitation of the wind resource. The technical issue of wind resource assessment (WRA) has a direct impact on the commercial value and on the ability to convince project funders (public and private).
The siting areas for onshore wind power operations are very varied, making it very difficult to assess their profitability. Operations in the pre-commissioning phase represent about 5% of capital expenditure. It is therefore necessary to use computer solutions to perform wind simulations and forecasts, either by purchasing proprietary licenses or consulting services, both expensive; in addition to the lead times in weeks, the lack of reliability and accuracy of the results provided.
2 - Optimizing the operating performance of a wind farm by detecting the underperformance
In the post-commissioning phase, the challenge is to reach an energy production in line with forecasts, which will have to be systematically revised and corrected during the lifetime of the wind farm. These in-situ analyses must be led using expensive techniques and tools by experts. But the optimization measures make it possible to increase on average by 3% the annual production, which can be estimated at an increase in annual incomes of 3,150 €/MW installed. The capacity of onshore wind farms varies between <10 MW and 1000 MW, a foreseeable increase from 31 K€ to 3.1 M€. Optimizing the performance of a wind farm can extend the life of the turbines while reducing operating and maintenance costs.
Today, the market is very fragmented, with incomplete offers to meet the various issues of assessing the relevance of a wind farm project, as well as the evaluation during the operational phase, and IT solutions that do not address all potential customer segments (utilities, operators, finance, etc.).
• Why is it important for society?
With our innovative solutions, we hope to help the implementation of wind farms and their optimization to increase the supply of renewable energy for all at competitive and affordable prices, in order to reduce polluting energies and thus the effect of global warming on the planet.
• What are the overall objectives?
The overall objective of this Phase 2 is to accelerate the development of ZephyCloud-2 in order to become the reference platform in the wind power industry offering IT engineering solutions. Providing an integral and accurate solution for wind project analysis as well as optimization wind farm assets will help meeting the needs at every stage of project lifecycle not only in the pre-commissioning phase but also in the post-commissioning for wind power industry. Moreover, another crucial objective is to reduce time spent with on-premise calculations and simulations for tight project deadlines so we can help industries cutting off their operating costs.
The wind industry is demanding faster, more accurate and more transparent tools, offered at cost-effective pricing schemes such as those enabled by the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Cloud computing engine implementation is providing unlimited on-demand computational power with high-quality results (faster and more accurate) at a very attractive price.
Moreover, we are developing open source numerical solvers with tools entirely auditable and transparent, since its numerical source code can be reviewed and improved by the open source community.
