THE CARBON TRUST OFFSHORE WIND ACCELERATOR FUNDING FOR PROJECT: ESTIMATION OF SOIL DAMPING FROM CYCLIC TESTING OF PILES This summary sets out the key information set out in Annex III, relation to the ad hoc aid granted to DONG Energy Wind Power A/S for the project: Estimation of Soil Damping from Cyclic Testing of Piles, as required pursuant to Article 9(1) of Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 (the ‘General Block Exemption Regulation’ or ‘GBER’). 1.
Name of the Beneficiary DONG Energy Wind Power A/S 2.
Beneficiary's Identifier [TBC] 3.
Type of enterprise (SME/large) at the time of granting Large enterprise 4.
Region in which the beneficiary is located, at NUTS level II Denmark 5.
Sector of activity at NACE group level Electricity production and transmission 6.
Aid element, expressed as full amount in national currency £70,700 7.
Aid instrument Grant 8.
Date of granting 16 December 2014 9.
Objective of the aid Aid for Research, Development and Innovation The Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator (‘OWA’) is funded by the Carbon Trust using funds granted to the Carbon Trust from the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Scottish Government for the development and deployment of low carbon technologies. The objective of the OWA is to enable the UK to meet its EU target of 15% renewable energy. To meet this target as much as 40% of electricity must come from renewables by 2020. Offshore wind is the only technology that can be deployed at sufficient scale to achieve this, and has the potential to supply as much as 25% of the UK’s electricity by 2020. The OWA was set up to drive down costs of offshore wind and accelerate deployment of technologies. The aim is to achieve cost reduction and to overcome the complexities of constructing and running offshore wind farms in tough marine conditions through innovation. Technology challenges are identified in the areas of (i) turbine foundations and installation techniques; (ii) facilitation of access to distant turbines for maintenance; (iii) finding the best wind farm array layouts to optimise yield (through the study of wake effects); (iv) researching ways to reduce electricity transmission losses and increase reliability; (v) improving cable installation methods; and (vi) studying the environmental impact of constructing and operating offshore wind farms. The Estimation of Soil Damping from Cyclic Testing of Piles project falls within the research area of foundations and installation techniques. The objective of this project is to gain accurate knowledge of damping in order to be able to work with less conservative damping values when predicting the loads on dynamically loaded turbine structures. This will reduce loads on turbine foundations, thereby reducing costs both in terms of material and installation of wind turbine generators (WTGs). 10.
Granting authority The Carbon Trust 4th Floor, Dorset House 27‐45 Stamford Street London, SE1 9NT United Kingdom