CX-100880 Cost of Energy reduction for offshore Tension Leg Platform (TLP) wind turbine systems through advanced control strategies for energy yield improvement, load mitigation and stabilization

Cost of Energy reduction for offshore Tension Leg Platform (TLP) wind turbine systems through advanced control strategies for energy yield improvement, load mitigation and stabilization
Award Number: DE-EE0005494
CX(s) Applied: A9, B5.15
Wind Energy Technologies Office
Location(s): VA
Office(s): Golden Field Office

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide federal funding to Alstom Renewables US (Alstom) to design and test new control strategies for utility-scale wind turbines that would reduce the levelized cost of energy through increased energy yield, particularly in an offshore environment.

DOE completed two previous NEPA determinations for this project. The first NEPA determination included activities for Budget Period 1 (BP1), originally defined as Tasks 1-­11 and redefined in the Budget Period 2 (BP2) Statement of Project Objectives (SOPO) as Tasks 1­1-7 (GFO­0005494­001, CX A9, 01/19/2012). The second NEPA determination applied to the remainder of the project, including BP2 (GFO­0005494­002, CX A9, CX B3.1, CX B5.15, 7/31/2014).

DOE is now considering changes to the SOPO proposed by Alstom. Alstom is proposing to revise BP2 to include a task to test and evaluate an outrigger damper which would be installed on the flange at the base of the ECO110 wind turbine tower at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s National Wind Technology Center (NREL's NWTC). The purpose of this added task is to advance the tension leg platform - outrigger damper technology by testing its operation under power production and extreme winds. In addition to the outrigger damper, sensors would be installed on the flange at the tower’s base to measuring structural loads.