Control-Oriented INnovations for future wave energy farms

Objective

The importance of an increased exploitation of renewable energy sources is highlighted by the recent geo-political events with their impact on energy security and pricing, together with the global efforts to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. The European Union acknowledges this importance and sets forth ambitious targets for the installed renewable energy capacity in the farmwork of the SET plan. Ocean energy, and wave energy, in particular, can contribute to achieving the targets by diversifying the exploitable (marine) renewable energy sources. However, ocean energy is relatively far from commercial operation, facing techno-economic challenges both during device/component design (strategic stage) as well as concerning monitoring, control, and maintenance (operational stage). The COIN project (Control Oriented Innovations for future ocean energy farms) aims to provide solutions to challenges in both stages. In particular, COIN provides three control-oriented innovations: (1) Innovative connector (mooring and electrical) to subsea infrastructure, enabling (active) peak load limiting and damage prevention, developed based on control co-design. Considering relevant control action in the design loop, secures optimal performance; (2) Innovative AI-based real-time wave prediction algorithm using hybrid wave sensing techniques, enabling second-by-second (non-linear) prediction as input to control frameworks; (3) Innovative digital-twin based health monitoring and health-aware control framework, developed to maximise performance while minimising down-time and failure, thereby maximising (remaining) useful life. Being paired with a holistic techno-economic, multi-level, multi-objective optimisation framework, COINs technology development results in more performant ocean energy technology and, thus, to a more efficient, clean, sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply.