PhairywinD | Ensuring a strong academic home base for the future Belgian offshore sector

The PhairywinD project ensures a strong academic home base for the future Belgian offshore sector 

Context

The Belgian offshore wind zone is expanding, with 2.2 GW already installed and brand new zones being tendered. To ensure our place as frontrunners of wind energy in Europe and to stay on the forefront of technology trends and scientific advances, our industry needs a strong academic home base. And that is exactly what the PhairywinD project is all about. 

Objective and results

The objectives of the PhairywinD project are threefold: research, training and mobility, but it is the link between these objectives that makes this project unique.

• Research: All researchers will be deployed in one Belgian knowledge institution. The 9 research topics on the most important aspects of offshore wind will deliver scientifically based answers to the challenges met by the Belgian offshore wind industry. Sirris will set up the data-pool either via simulations or test campaigns based on the requirements of the PhD-topics addressed in this project.
  • Ugent: The legal framework for (inter)connecting the Belgian offshore wind energy farms
  • Umons: Improved Offshore Wind Generation Modelling in Power Systems Adequacy Evaluation Using Machine Learning
  • ULiege O&M optimisation of OWT support structures using digital twins
  • VUB: Fleet-based model updating for design optimization and structural health monitoring
  • KULeuven: Wave prediction for vessel operation near offshore wind turbines
  • ULB: Optimal power dispatching in offshore wind farms ensuring power reserve for frequency control and load mitigation
  • UCLouvain: Scaled-resolved fluid-structure interaction of large wind turbines
  • UA: Hyperspectral imaging for automated inspection of offshore wind infrastructure
  • Von Karman Institute  (VKI): Multi-fidelity modelling of offshore wind energy systems including mesoscale variability at wind turbine scale: an application to wind farm control for grid balancing
• Training is realized through joint activities such as hard and soft skill workshops, sector-emerging WindWeeks, secondments and exchange programmes.
• Mobility ensures that researchers are embedded in a strong industry-academic network. Sirris coordinates and facilitates in linking the academic research activities with industry: the link from PhD to Industry, the organization of company visits and  the link to international activities. 

Funding

• Reference: ETF PhairywinD