WIND ENERGY
Wind energy plays a critical role in improving the renewable power sources of a country and in reducing the greenhouse effect and maintaining ecological balance. Recent developments in the EU have significantly changed the wind energy viewpoint for the next 20 years. As a result, wind energy has been the fastest and strongest rising renewable energy resource of power production in the world.
The current cost of offshore wind energy is much more expensive compared to land-based power alternatives. Wind turbine operation and maintenance (O&M) represent an important part of the wind power production cost because of many component failures. Actually, the operation and maintenance costs represent 20–25% in the lifetime of a wind turbine. Indeed, these costs are limited to 10–15% when the wind turbine is almost new, but they increase to at least 20–35% by the end of its lifetime (EWEA, 2009). High reliability and the safety of wind turbines and their components is one prerequisite for the economic exploitation of onshore and offshore wind farms. For offshore wind farms under harsh weather conditions, the demand for reliable and safer wind turbines is even more important since both maintenance and repair costs are very high. Moreover, O&M costs can be expected to increase further when wind farms are placed at deeper water depths (EWEA, 2009). Also, the maintenance cost of offshore wind turbines contributes significantly to the cost of a kWh. That cost may be lowered by the application of effective reliability and risk-based maintenance strategies.
A wind turbine is a complex power generating system consisting of several structural, electrical, and mechanical components interacting with environmental, human, and organizational factors. Its efficiency and availability depend on its reliability, safety levels, and the compatibility of its components with the factors mentioned above. In order to increase the reliability and safety of offshore wind turbines, risk-based maintenance decisions can be adopted to reduce OWT failures and hence minimize the total expected life cycle costs. However, the modeling of the relationship between maintenance and safety management is not an easy task, especially when human factors play an important role during the maintenance phases of offshore wind turbines.
As FONDA company, we carry out the modeling, planning, cost-benefit analysis, and risk assessment of the design, manufacturing, and operation processes of wind turbines (onshore or offshore types) using advanced methodologies.