SWIP - New innovative solutions, components and tools for the integration of wind energy in urban and peri-urban areas
- Dates: October 2013 – September 2017
- Website project: http://www.swipproject.eu/
- Leader: CIRCE
- Grant agreement number: 608554
- Financied by
DESCRIPTION
SWIP project will be focused on the development of innovative solutions for overcoming the current barriers the wind sector and market have for effective deployment of these systems into urban and peri-urban areas within Europe.
At a first stage, the project will assess the current state of the art of this sector, analysing its economic and legal status and studying the available technologies and products regarding small and medium size wind turbines.
With the information gathered, SWIP will
- Develop a new methodology for wind resource assessment in urban areas with a maximum of 8% RMS error in speed prediction
- Design an innovative and low cost wind generator (between 1 and 100 kW) which could be adapted to different types of wind turbines deployments
- Design and develop cutting-edge technology wind blades, which maximize the wind energy conversion in each type of final model, addressing small and medium size wind turbines and considering both vertical and horizontal axis
- Implement a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system that will allow a better performance of the wind generator, through improved operation and maintenance
- Study their structural integration into buildings/districts, analysing anchorage elements and elaborating best practices guidelines for the aesthetic integration of these systems, so as to guarantee social acceptance.
- Develop solutions to mitigate and to absorb the noise and vibration produced by the wind turbine
SWIP will further implement such innovations and solutions into three demonstration sites, in order to test and validate them under real operating conditions. These pilots will be located at:
- Zaragoza (SPAIN): installed in CIRCE’s headquarters, a low energy consumption building, which works at the same time as a R&D&i laboratory on buildings energy efficiency.
- Choczewo Commune, Pomerania Region (POLAND): Installed on the ground next to to the Commune Office in and will supply in energy the buildings around.
- Kokoszki District, Gdansk (POLAND): installed at a local industrial area.
OBJECTIVES
SWIP project is aligned with the European Commission plans and goals for wind energy development by 2020, and addresses the integration of Small Wind Turbines (SWTs) into urban and peri-urban areas due to the potential market that exists in this field.
SWIP expects to suppose a critical burst to the expansion of SWTs in Europe and worldwide. The project aims to develop, implement and test innovative solutions and components for tackling the current barriers this technology has, opening the way for a successful market uptake in the near future.
These cutting-edge technology improvements are expected to achieve:
- An important reduction of maintenance costs (near 40%)
- An increase in 9% in SWTs performance
- The mitigation and/or elimination of noise and vibrations
- A possible reduction in the final users investment.
CIRCE'S ROLE
Due to the vast experience in wind energy research, CIRCE will be in charge of the wind-resource assessment at the demo locations, and the performance of power curve tests and durability assessments, in order to improve the accuracy of the estimated power production. Once the pilots are installed, CIRCE will be the coordinator of the wind turbines performance monitoring.
In addition, CIRCE will be responsible of several activities related to the design and development of electric equipment, such as the Permanent Magnetic generator or the magnetic gearbox, also taking part in the development, integration and definition of parameters of the SCADA.
Regarding safety, CIRCE will participate in the study of safety standards and performance of safety tests, specially regarding the Electromagnetic Interferences (EMI), establishing their requirements for the urban environments in order to ensure that the devices developed under the project are according to the regulation.
PARTNERS
