Flexible Offshore Drone
The project involves the development and maturement of a drone charging station and a drone system. The combined system should then be capable of conducting autonomous wind turbine inspections and package deliveries from vessel to turbine. The project is parted into five work packages, where the main technical development is in work package 2 Drone System Development and work package 3 Application Development. The project involves three overall iterations leading to on,- and offshore demonstrations to relevant organizations and institutions, ensuring a high and broad level of inputs from the industry.
Upteko has already developed a drone charging station and a drone system and it is the main goal of this project to 1) mature the existing systems to a higher technological readiness level, TRL, and 2) expand and continue to develop on already identified key applications.
Within the project, the whole value chain is represented. Upteko is the lead and supplier of the solution, ESVAGT performs services in wind farms, and SGRE is the end-customer. Therefore, Upteko is responsible for commercialization, whereas ESVAGT and SGRE will be consulting towards a value-adding solution.
Wind energy is said by many sources to be one of the most important energy technologies in the future and in many countries, we have already seen how installation of wind energy generates a huge effect on the green transition. However, to reach the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, further innovations and optimization are crucial as an accelerated growth is needed.
This project aims at introducing new service technologies within offshore wind. This includes fully autonomous wind turbine inspection and package deliveries using drones and fixed charging stations on offshore service vessels. The project introduces an unseen level of autonomy and speed that will optimize the O&M cost servicing offshore wind turbines, reduce downtime, increase weather window, increase annual energy production, and reduce CO2 emissions. All in all, to improve the levelized cost of electricity(LCOE). The potential is very high as every offshore wind farm must undergo inspections, transfer of spare parts and other goods. This is enabled by service vessels (SOVs and CTVs).
Therefore, we propose a solution to reduce cost by improving existing O&M processes significantly including an increase of weather window, which is a critical element moving forward.
Key figures
Participants
| Partner | Subsidy | Auto financing |
|---|---|---|
| Upteko ApS | 5,06 mio. DKK | 3,38 mio. DKK |
| Esvagt A/S | 1,44 mio. DKK | 2,17 mio. DKK |
| Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy A/S | 0,83 mio. DKK | 1,25 mio. DKK |
| Syddansk Universitet | 1,79 mio. DKK | 0,20 mio. DKK |
| Energy Cluster Denmark | 0,82 mio. DKK | 0,54 mio. DKK |
Contact
Ørstedsvej 10
8660 Skanderborg
Tlf.: +45 5012 2000