ATOMS is a 2-year project supported by the European Commission’s EMFF Funding Opportunities (September 2020). It is aimed at designing, building, certifying and fully demonstrating in an operative environment a pioneer technology for turbines’ Large Corrective Maintenance (LCM) actions which will -for the first time- scape the monopoly of jack-up vessels and will drastically reduce the maintenance cost of bottom-fixed wind turbines. It will be built and demonstrated at the PLOCAN test site (Canary Islands).
ATOMS will provide a simple and yet breakthrough solution to one of the key unsolved technological challenges of the offshore wind sector: how to perform on-site Large Corrective Maintenance operations in floating wind turbines. Not only will our solution slash to nearly 1/5 the costs currently dedicated to jack-up services for the maintenance of bottom-fixed turbines, resulting in a 35% reduction in the current OPEX but it will also fill at technological gap existing in floating offshore market when dealing with LCM actions.
The expected impact, can be grouped into the following topics:
Non dependant on scarce and costly jack-up vessels:the cost of a jack-up vessel, as a reference for mov-demov actions, is circa €4M per each LCM intervention. ATOMS will, for the first time, break the monopoly of such means and reduce the comparable cost by 1/5.
Rely only on conventional and ready-available tugboats and land cranes:similar cranes to those used in onshore installations. Reduction of costs and environmental impact.
Quick response time to reduce the unproductive time of turbines requiring maintenance:ATOMS system can be built and assigned to serve a specific wind farm, thus remaining available in stand-by for whenever an intervention may be required.
Applicability to floating wind turbines:There are currently no available technologies to service a floating wind turbine in a Large Corrective operation on the site. ATOMS will put an end to this technological limitation by being suitable for current SPARs and SEMISUBs.
Deeper water wind farms:: ATOMS technology is suitable for deep waters and thus contributing to the current tendency towards deeper locations of offshore wind farms.
Directly applicable for new emerging markets:the availability of jack-up vessels is lower or simply inexistent in new emerging OWE markets. Therefore, ATOMS provides a solution to this problem.
Improve circular economy by reducing the impact of the construction phase:despite its technically sophisticated and powerful problem-solving capacity the ATOMS is yet quite simple in its applicability. No means are required in the construction phase.
Minimize impact of CO2 emissions and on local flora and fauna by not using large marine cranes and heavy-lift jack-vessel:ATOMS is a floating structure which does not need to be supported on the seabed. It is transported to its final position by conventional tugboats whose CO2 emissions are low.
The construction sector is the EU’s largest industrial employer with 15 million workers. However, it must be acknowledged that only a very small percentage of these employees are women and young people. 1.5 million construction workers in the European Union are female and 92% of all the sector’s workers are over 25 years old. Young women account for only 1% of those working in the sector.
Construction companies, as main actors in this field, must accept our own responsibility and implement all necessary measures to reverse this situation.
The ELICAN consortium is profoundly committed to gender equality. In order to achieve this purpose, different actions are being implemented by all partners.
At an individual level
At a consortium level
Esteyco will participate in the WindEurope Electric City 2021 event that will take place from 23rd to 25th November at the Bella Center in the city of Copenhagen. This event will deal with wind energy, both onshore and offshore, but it will be focused on how wind energy can become a sustainable and economical source of energy to electrify transports, heating systems and the industry. Esteyco will have a stand at the Innovation Park to exhibit its innovative and patented solutions in the field of wind energy, both onshore and offshore, including the ELISA technology for bottom-fixed, the TELWIND technology for floating and the Braced Foundations technology for onshore, among others. Special attention will be given to our project ATOMS. This pioneering solution deals with the design, certification, construction and prototype of a real-scale system to perform the so-called Large Corrective Maintenance actions for offshore turbines without depending on scarce and costly jack-ups or vessels thus reducing O&M costs in offshore platforms. At the same time, this solution will make it possible for these LCM actions to be performed on floating platform at sea without having to take the structure onshore.
Last November 3rd, Mr. Carlos García Acón, ESTEYCO’s CEO, presented the ATOMS project within the cluster event “Reducing offshore wind o&m costs through innovate solutions”. The ATOMS project (Auxiliary Towable Operation and Maintenance System for Offshore Wind Towers), consists on the design, certification, construction and prototype of a real-scale system to perform the so-called Large Corrective Maintenance actions for offshore turbines without depending on scarce and costly jack-ups or vessels thus reducing O&M costs in offshore platforms (funded by the European Commission’s European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) program. Grant Agreement: 958976). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jth0VNvQzY
The “CIRCULAR DESIGN FOR THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY SECTOR” event will be held on-line on 22 June 2021 from 09:45 to 12:00. It is organized by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency. The main objective of this webinar is to present the solutions generated within the projects funded by the “Blue Invest, European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)”, that contribute to circularity in the offshore wind energy sector. Esteyco has been invited to present the ATOMS project, a pioneer system suitable to perform O&M actions, more specifically Large Corrective Actions, in offshore wind turbines without the need for jack-ups, thus reducing costs significantly. To register for the online event, click on the link below: Link circular design for the sustainability of the offshore renewable energy sector
Esteyco, in its commitment to reducing offshore wind energy costs to make it affordable to society, is developing the engineering works for its new project called ATOMS (Auxiliary Towable Operation and Maintenance System for offshore wind towers) since 1st September 2020. This pioneering solution deals with the design, certification, construction and prototype of a real-scale system to perform the so-called Large Corrective Maintenance actions for offshore turbines without depending on scarce and costly jack-ups or vessels thus reducing O&M costs in offshore platforms. Currently, OPEX accounts for approximately 30% of the cost of offshore wind energy and is thus a critical factor in the path to further reducing the cost of this strategic energy source. Nearly half of this OPEX is dedicated to paying for the large jack-up vessels that are, as of today, the only option to perform any so called Large Corrective Maintenance (LCM) interventions, dealing with the replacement and handling of major components of offshore wind turbines. Therefore, in an attempt to provide a solution to this situation, the ATOMS technology arises to demonstrate and provide a simple and yet breakthrough solution to one of the key unsolved technological challenges for the future of the offshore wind sector: how to perform on-site Large Corrective Maintenance operations in floating wind turbines. To this end, Esteyco has been funded by the European Commission through its European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) program and its Blue Economy call for a total of €3,545,109.02.
With the contribution of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund of the European Union
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