Offshore wind is considered a key sector for meeting national and international targets with respect to sustainability, energy security, and low electricity prices. As offshore wind costs are decreasing and existing technical difficulties are overcome, the majority of new installations in the UK and abroad are expected to be located in Northern areas where wind resources are abundant but climates are cold and icing conditions are common. Ice protection is essential for the operation of wind turbines operating in cold climates. Ice accretion on the blades of turbines can significantly increase operational costs, lower energy output, and decrease turbine lifetime. This project will develop WIN-D-ICE, a new system which provides automatic ice protection by combining existing state-of-the-art anti- and de- icing technologies. The system will achieve maximum performance at minimum costs and energy use by using sensors to detect ice on the blades and specialised software to automatically control system operation. WIN-D-ICE will act as a catalyst enabling further growth of offshore to achieve national and international commitments and targets with respect to renewables, energy costs, and energy security for the benefit of us all.

Bio-fouling is the unwanted adhesion of biological materials to any wetted surface and it grows continuously in thickness with sustained immersion. Fouling causes severe structural loading on all the submerged components of marine electricity generators, lowers the efficiency of generation and can disable a generator totally through the clogging up of moving components in turbines or pumps. Existing anti-fouling coating techniques applied to ship hulls cost £3.8 billion pa worldwide, yet fouling still causes an extra fuel cost of £5.1 billion pa. So for marine generators a novel fouling prevention system is proposed, usable on any generator design, which deploys low power quasi-continuous low KHz guided ultrasonic waves, mode selected both to repel bio-molecules and couple into all the submerged generator components from a single source location, to cost effectively, without harm to marine life, prevent fouling with 100% surface coverage, avoiding all downtime for fouling removal.