Logistics innovative strength at home and abroad

Rapid developments

The proposed worldwide energy transition to clean, sustainable energy means that there is a great demand for wind turbines. In the Dutch part of the North Sea alone, the current wind farms will be expanded by some 500 wind turbines by 2023. And shortly after that with another six hundred. The challenge is to help design advanced wind turbines that produce the most energy at the lowest possible cost and that can be removed and replaced as cheaply as possible over time.

Developments in offshore wind energy are happening rapidly. There is a strong demand for larger and more powerful offshore wind turbines. New designs of wind turbines - along with suitable underwater vehicles and vessels and pile-drivers to transport and install these increasingly colossal turbines - are first simulated and tested in computer models by the researchers of TNO. In this way, the added value is carefully calculated and tested before they are built. The aimis to reduce risks and reduce costs.

Collaboration

TNO is joining forces with major players in the transport and installation sector in these logistics operations, many of whom are also from the Netherlands and Belgium. Dutch shipping owners, with dredgers at the forefront, were among the first to switch to the transport and installation of wind turbines. There is a great deal of knowledge in the Netherlands of how to transport and install large parts. Electrolysis technology can be built into the wind turbines. This makes it possible to produce hydrogen from wind energy, in addition to electricity. In this form, excess electricity can be temporarily stored.

TNO has a great deal of knowledge about geology, among other things. This know-how about geological layers is probably very useful, for example in the possible storage of hydrogen, for example in former gas fields. This cross-fertilisation of expertise offers many opportunities in the current and future renewal of our energy systems.