Windcluster partners with Onyx Insight to support the life extension of the turbines at Haverigg III

The five year partnership will see digital and engineering solutions provider ONYX Insight monitor the condition of the four wind turbines at Windcluster Haverigg III in Cumbria which will help to extend the lifetime of the turbines through to 2040.

Onyx Insight have installed ecoCMS, its market-leading condition monitoring system, to monitor the condition of the 850kW V52 wind turbines located at Haverigg airfield in Cumbria.

WindEurope estimates that across Europe, more than 34,000 turbines – representing 36 GW of capacity – are now over 15 years old, with the designed operational lifetime of turbines generally being between 20 and 25 years, at which point repowering, life extension or decommissioning become the choice of options for owners.

Digitalisation is set to be key to wind farm owners and operators seeking to extend the life of aging assets and develop lifetime extension strategies. Understanding a turbine’s remaining life, as well as continuously monitoring the condition of turbines in which the lifespan has been extended, so that interventions when faults occur can be made quickly, will be essential in maximising the return and effectiveness of the continued operation of aging assets.

In this case, Onyx Insight’s ecoCMS, which uses the latest in advanced sensing and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology to provide real-time data and trending analytics on each wind turbine, will help to extend the lifetime of the Haverigg III turbines through to 2040.

By retrofitting both vibration and oil monitoring systems to the wind turbines at Haverigg III, a complete picture of the condition of each wind turbine and its oil health will be provided. The combination of vibration and oil provides better analytics and a more complete condition of the machine health and oil health.

“We are delighted to have developed a life extension strategy which will keep the turbines spinning at one of the UK’s oldest commercial wind projects” said Colin Palmer, Founder, Windcluster. “To do this, it has been critical to gain a better understanding of our turbines. We chose Onyx Insight because we wanted a credible and innovative partner. Onyx has offered a flexible approach to enable us to maximise our investment and has already shown great value. Digitalising our turbines during this next phase of their operational life is going to be key in ensuring they generate power at full capacity. We will be using the vibration and oil monitoring data analysis and reporting by Onyx to ensure we can extend the life of our assets to 2040. We look forward to Onyx Insight’s continued support in this endeavour.”

Keiran Knowles, Business Development Manager – UK & Northern Europe, Onyx Insight,  added that across northern Europe thousands of wind projects are coming to the end of their operational life, and will need to either be repowered, undergo life extension or be decommissioned.

“With our combined engineering know-how and cutting edge technology, we use our advanced analytics capabilities to detect early signs of failure” said Mr Knowles. “Detecting an incident in a wind turbine before it occurs prevents downtime and production losses, saving time and money, whilst ensuring optimum power production. This is even more pertinent for aging assets – where data visibility to continually plan life extension strategies is invaluable and Onyx, by retrofitting their technology, can provide this capability and insight even where this has not been economically viable previously.”

Windcluster helps fund a predator-proof fence at South Walney Nature Reserve to protect declining gull colony

Windcluster is investing in the local area to support native wildlife by helping to fund the installation of a predator-proof fence to protect the declining gull colony at South Walney Nature Reserve.

The nature reserve's gull colony has suffered a catastrophic decline and no chicks have fledged since 2016.

Sarah Dalrymple, warden of South Walney Nature Reserve, which is managed by Cumbria Wildlife Trust, hopes the protective fence will provide a safe, natural alternative nesting spot for the gulls.

She said: "We want to encourage gulls to come here rather than nest in town, but the gulls here haven’t been doing well on the reserve and one of the reasons for that is predation from badgers and foxes.

"We’ve previously used temporary fences, but the badgers have realised they can push through these, so we need something more robust. This fence will be tall enough foxes can’t jump over and will be dug in so badgers can’t dig underneath.”

Managing Director at Windcluster, Colin Palmer said: “Windcluster was very pleased to have this opportunity to support Cumbria Wildlife Trust in their work to protect the local gull population. Long experience has shown that our wind turbines are good neighbours to the birds that use the Haverigg airfield and the Duddon Estuary, but they do suffer from high levels of natural predation, and this fence will go a long way to protecting the birds, their eggs and chicks during the nesting season.”

In the 1960s and 70s there were more than 45,000 pairs of herring and lesser-black backed gulls nesting at South Walney. This has reduced by 2020 to around 900 pairs and Cumbria Wildlife Trust want to provide a safe, natural alternative for them to nest away from the town.

Sarah Dalrymple continues, "Gulls at South Walney are nesting in their natural habitat, and from GPS tracking data we know that most of the gulls that nest here on the nature reserve feed out at sea, on Morecambe Bay and on bugs and worms in fields – their natural food. These aren’t the gulls that are nesting on your chimney and stealing your chips."

Life extension potential confirmed for Windcluster

The results are in - Nabla Wind Hub have completed their Turbine Life Analysis Study to determine the remaining life of the turbines at Windcluster’s Haverigg site in Cumbria, revealing high life expectancy above 40 years for the site.

The report concludes that due to the benign, smooth airflow at the site, most of the major components are predicted to have lives in excess of 40 years. This includes key components like the towers and foundations, as well as the blades. This doubles the original projected lifespan of the turbines, which were given a 20 year life expectancy when they were installed in 2005.

Colin Palmer, Managing Director of Windcluster Ltd said: “These results confirm our expectation of the quality of our site at Haverigg and the robust design of the Vestas V52 turbines. We were hoping for at least 10 years of extra life, but it looks it could be more like 20 years before the costs of renewal becomes uneconomic. Now we have the results of the Nabla study we will develop a plan for monitoring the critical components and a schedule for phased refurbishment or renewal as necessary.”

 Whilst the report indicates a small number of components that are predicted to reach the end of their lives in less than 40 years, none require immediate attention, and all can be effectively managed through routine maintenance, ageing management planning and retrofits over the coming years.

 Ruben Ruiz de Gordejuela, CTO of Nabla Wind Hub adds: “Haverigg is a very good example of the potential for life extension in the UK: robust turbines and benign wind conditions in conjunction with very good wind farm management - expert, attentive and technically driven, has led to a complete redevelopment of the original business model. We have identified the hidden potential which can be unlocked using Nabla’s advanced techniques in life extension and health monitoring.”

 Work will now begin to install a condition monitoring system to determine the ongoing health of the turbine components. A baseline dataset will also be established from which future performance of key components can be closely monitored, and a preventative maintenance strategy developed.

Windcluster plans life extension of wind turbines in pioneering project

As one of the original pioneers of wind energy in the UK back in the late 1980s, Windcluster is now amongst the first to explore the possibilities of wind turbine life extension.

 The current Vestas V52 turbines were installed at their Haverigg site, Cumbria in 2005 and were originally designed for a 20 year lifespan. However, due to operating under relatively low stress conditions at the site and the provision of a good maintenance regime, the turbines are still in excellent condition, and the Directors have successfully gained the consents required to extend the life of the turbines and keep the site operational for a further 15 years.

 The landowners readily agreed to extend the existing lease, and the required planning consent was granted by Copeland Borough Council after it was unanimously approved by its members.

 Colin Palmer, Founder & Managing Director says: “Back in 1988, when I founded Windcluster, people thought I was mad. Fossil fuels and nuclear power were their vision of the future, but they were wrong. Today Windcluster is part of a multi-billion pound global industry that is leading the charge to net zero. Thirty-three years ago, Windcluster was just an idea and wind energy was widely dismissed as a passing fad. Hard to believe now, but It was a huge struggle to raise money for the company when we built our first wind turbines in 1992. Undeterred, I managed to raise the money and support we needed to build our first project on a windy airfield in Cumbria, one of the first commercial windfarms in the UK.”

 In 2004 Windcluster repowered the original turbines, and now those replacements are approaching the end of their original planned design life, which makes this the right time for Colin and the Windcluster team to chart a new course for the future and become pioneers of wind turbine life extension.

 Colin adds: “Our turbines are in very good condition and were over-designed for the site conditions, so we are confident that they will run for long after their original life expectancy. Our challenge now is to work out for how long, and what we need to do to keep them performing at their best. If all goes well, they could still be turning in 2040, more than 50 years after Windcluster was originally founded”

 There are still four years until the turbines reach the end of their original life in 2025, ensuring there is ample time to carefully plan the management of the life extension. The first step of which is to commission an engineering study of the remaining life, from which components identified for replacement or refurbishment can be considered. At the same time, a condition monitoring system will be installed to determine the ongoing condition of the turbines components. A baseline dataset will also be established from which future performance of key components can be closely monitored, and a preventative maintenance strategy developed.

Offshore wind turbine installations to triple this decade

As reported below by Bloomberg New Energy Finance

BloombergNEF: Annual Offshore Wind Installations to Triple This Decade (windfair.net)

Wind Turbine Emoji Request Ends in Sad Face for Climate Campaigners

This is currently just a short fun news item in the New Scientist, but hey - why don’t we get a wind turbine emoji, when green energy is setting records around the world for growth, and the global race to reach net zero by 2050?

Click below to read the article in the New Scientist.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2267098-wind-turbine-emoji-request-ends-in-sad-face-for-climate-campaigners/