Wind energy is key for NWE to meet the Paris Agreements. NWE’s extended coastlines provide huge potential. But today’s wind turbines encounter limitations, both on-shore (space, public acceptance) and off-shore (space, water depth). SMEs in NWE are strongly positioned to develop a novel alternative that addresses these issues: Airborne Wind Energy Systems (AWES), aircraft tethered to compact ground-based generators. With AWES, new locations for wind energy can be unlocked (incl. floating offshore, rural onshore). Energy is harvested efficiently, reducing materials, foundations and carbon footprint, while lower visual impact can ease public acceptance.
MegaAWE brings utility-scale AWES („MW-AWES“) closer to the market, readying SMEs for its roll-out in NWE and beyond. It shall achieve this by:
- endurance demonstration, to improve investability and secure interest of utilities
- demonstration of key enabling modules at MW-scale, to derisk planning of commercial prototype demo
- an execution plan for MW-AWES commercial prototype demo, to ensure relevant innovation focus (incl. site & user requirements, design guidelines, system sizing & costing), validated by regions & users.
MegaAWE shall raise MW-AWES from TRL5 to 7, strengthen innovation capacity of 12 SMEs and secure supply chain & investment towards the next step, commercial demonstration. By 2033, 50 AWES installed (150MW capacity) could then provide renewable energy to 150.000 additional households in NWE.
The international consortium
- Mayo County Council (Ireland)
- Airborne Wind Europe AISBL (Belgium)
- Ampyx Power B.V. (Netherlands)
- Koninklijke DSM N.V. DSM (Netherlands)
- Parkburn Precision Handling Systems (UK)
- Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (UK)
- Kiteswarms GmbH (Germany)
- SmartBay Ireland (Ireland)
- RWE Renewables GmbH (Germany)
- Société Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques – Limburg (Belgium)
- European Marine Energy Center (UK)
- Diinef AS (Norway)
- Europaeisches Institut fuer Innovation – Technologie e.V. (Germany)
- Bretagne Développement Innovation (France)