KONFLOT - Codiseño de control de energías renovables flotantes

Objective:

The objective of KONFLOT is to establish a design methodology that considers, from the early stages of design, the different subsystems, their dynamics and interactions and the performance of the available controls. This concurrent design process will lead to breakthrough alternatives that could not be achieved in sequential design processes, replacing the concept of mass with control and reducing costs. During the project, knowledge, techniques and tools for integrated design of floating renewable energy devices will be developed, incorporating control performance as a design driver.

Offshore renewables, and in particular floating wind and wave energy, are an important pillar in meeting the Paris Agreement targets for emission reductions. The Green Deal strategy [1], adopted by the European Commission, is a clear commitment to achieving these ambitious targets. This strategy has taken the form of a roadmap that establishes the deployment of 300 GW of offshore wind and 60 GW of marine energy in the European Union by 2050. According to IRENA's forecasts [2], in order to meet the decarbonisation targets, the global offshore wind energy requirement should be 1,000 GW by 2050.
At the national level and on a closer horizon, 2030, the recently approved Roadmap for the Development of Offshore Wind and Marine Energies [3] envisages targets for the installation of floating wind power of up to 3 GW and 60 MW of marine energies.
According to WindEurope1 , the European wind energy association, floating wind could account for up to a third of all installed offshore wind power. For offshore energy, the targets are lower, but given the degree of development of the different technologies, the majority will be developed with wave energy.
For both technologies to play a leading role, it is necessary to accelerate their commercial deployment through the development of cost-reducing innovations. One route is design optimisation; the other is supply chain development. It is in the first area that KONFLOT's challenges lie: the development of cost-optimised technologies through control co-design (CCD), with control strategies at the heart of the design.
Traditionally, the design of floating wind turbines and wave energy harvesters has been done in a sequential manner, starting from a structural design and considering control only in the later stages of the design. Thus, each design stage is limited by the previous stage and the controls developed in the last stage (wind turbine, energy extraction system, active ballast...) have a very small impact on the optimisation of the complete system.