KIC InnoEnergy: Researchers work on their first commercial product!

Neptune is an Innovation Project developing two commercial products: 'EOLOS', a Lidar buoy and NEPTool, a highly accurate software programme for forecasting wind, waves and currents.

When starting the planning of an offshore wind farm in the Mediterranean, a group of scientists found that the market did not offer any solution matching their needs. When word spread of their intention to develop their own solution, they soon discovered the interest of the industry in using it.

If there is the need and the demand, why not work on a commercial product and sell it?

KIC InnoEnergy interviewed Frieder Schuon and Dr Daniel González, representatives of the working group composed of 15 people from universities, research centres, a utility and a commercial company of the German and Iberian Co-location centres of KIC InnoEnergy. They are working on Neptune, a combination of hardware and software which will contribute to a breakthrough in energy generation: expanding offshore wind farming from the North and Baltic Seas into the Mediterranean and later into many other regions of the world.

What is Neptune?

(Frieder Schuon) The Neptune project is working towards the development of two different products: The “EOLOS” LIDAR buoy (a wind measuring system based on laser technology) and “NEPTool”, a highly accurate software program for forecasting wind, waves and currents. ”EOLOS” can be used instead of meteorological masts, which due to costs are limited to use in shallow water and are only able to take measurements up to 200 m in height. “NEPTool”, on the other hand, combines the simulation of wind, waves and currents into a single tool. These both represent substantial improvements on current commercial systems. It may not sound like a very exciting combination, but put together these two advances will dramatically reduce the financial risk of developing wind farms in the Mediterranean and many other seas around the world.

Is it not currently possible to deploy a wind farm in the Mediterranean?

(FS) All current technology, based on structures that are fixed to the bottom of the sea, is only applicable in maritime areas similar to the Baltic or North Seas. In these areas it is possible to deploy farms both very close to the coast and quite far offshore because the sea is generally no deeper than 40 metres. The market does not offer solutions for the Mediterranean Sea, where tourism prevents the installation of wind farms in areas with depths of less than 40 metres.
(Dr Daniel Gonzalez) Let’s take the Greek islands for example: The wind is highly influenced by the islands themselves and also by the difference in daily temperatures, which simply doesn’t occur in an open sea. You don’t need to consider these effects when planning for wind farms in the Baltic or North Sea.

Why did you decide to develop Neptune as a product?

(FS) The partners at Neptune are also involved in the creation of a test wind farm for floating wind turbines; it is open to any company wanting to test floating wind turbines. Right now when a company wants to carry out these tests, it needs to apply for the necessary permits as well as deploying the supporting infrastructure. Our plan is to offer companies a turnkey solution so that they only need to worry about their real interest: the turbine. Permits and infrastructure are provided by the test field. We knew we had to develop the measurement and prediction systems for the wind farm ourselves (wind, sea waves, the interaction between the waves and the wind…) as all current commercial systems are focused on the requirements of the North and Baltic Seas. However, when we shared our intentions with the energy community, we encountered such a degree of interest in this particular system that we thought we could make it available commercially.

At what stage of development is the product currently in?

(FS) The buoy and the software can be sold as separate products or bundled together. The LIDAR buoy will be ready by the end of 2013 and will be tested during 2014 in an exhaustive prototype testing and measurement campaign. 
In the next few months we will have already deployed the first buoy to sea in order to test our design. It has been developed using the results of various onshore tests that used a motion simulator replicating the likely motion of the buoy at sea.
(DG) Last but not least. A patent related to Neptune is also in the process of being filed.

What is the role of KIC InnoEnergy in Neptune?

(FS) As well as seed funding we want KIC InnoEnergy to help us deliver it to the market. Researchers know how to create prototypes but not how to transform them into marketable “mass manufactured products”. There is also the need for market knowledge: who are the customers we need to first target and how do we need to modify the design to adapt it to their different needs. We also would like to leverage KIC InnoEnergy’s European network to find our first “launch customer”.

What would you tell scientists who are interested in developing products from their research?

(FS) From our experience they will probably need to revise their way of thinking and approach to projects. Just like in “normal” research, the aim is excellence, so time is needed to achieve it.
However, when developing a product the aim is to satisfy the requirements of the market at a specific point in time and not only excellence. This means they will need to look for the best possible solution which can be operative by a certain date.
There is tight competition to bring products like Neptune onto the market, we estimate that around six other groups are also working on similar products, so it does not make any sense to have an excellent product two years after all our competitors have started to sell theirs!