The Iberdrola Foundation has awarded one of the Grants for Research in Energy and the Environment to Vincenzo Nava, a researcher at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics – BCAM and Tecnalia. His project, which focuses on the development of an artificial intelligence algorithm to reduce the operating costs of offshore wind structures, was one of the 20 projects selected by the foundation in the 2020 call for proposals. In line with its commitment to promote research about energy and climate change, since 2011 the Iberdrola Foundation awards these Research Grants to young researchers who wish to develop their work in the energy, sustainability and environmental sectors within a university or research center in Spain.
In this regard, one of the sectors that has grown most rapidly in recent years in Europe has been offshore renewable energy, and more specifically offshore wind energy. However, it is estimated that more than 50% of the costs of projects in this field are associated with the installation, maintenance and decommissioning of the turbines. Stationkeeping systems, such as foundation and mooring line systems for floating structures, can account for a significant portion of installation and operating costs.
The VIVIR project (Validation of a Method for Reducing Uncertainties in the Estimation of Remaining Life of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines mooring system) presented by Vincenzo Nava aims to develop, verify and validate an artificial intelligence algorithm to reduce these costs through data processing and numerical modelling. The researcher will employ numerical modelling to reduce the uncertainties in the estimation of failures and the remaining life of the mooring system of a floating offshore wind structure. In this way, he will contribute to identify earlier any potential/critical damage in the assembly and to plan operations accordingly.
According to Iberdrola global offshore wind managing director Jonathan Cole, Iberdrola aspires to be “a leading player in the offshore floating wind energy sector”. Hence the importance of projects like Vincenzo’s which use artificial intelligence techniques to reduce costs in renewable energy projects.
About Dr. Nava:
Vincenzo Nava graduated and obtained a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria (Italy). In 2009 he obtained a PhD in Ocean Engineering at the same university. He worked in a research project at BP America (Houston, USA) and later as a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria (Italy) and the Technical Superior Institute in Lisbon (Portugal). In 2013 he joined Tecnalia as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow and since 2017 he has been working as a researcher in the field of offshore renewable energies at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics – BCAM and Tecnalia.
Since 2017 he has also been teaching in the Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree in Renewable Energies in the Marine Environment (REM). He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Joint Research Laboratory for Renewable Marine Energies (JRL-ORE) of Tecnalia, the UPV/EHU and BCAM.
In the last few years, he has participated in several R&D projects at European, national and local level, all of them in the field of offshore renewable energies, with special attention to the optimization of offshore marine energy farms.
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