The MODUL project arose in response to the detected need to reduce the cost of electricity in remote areas of the planet. This mission responds to the detected need for the improvement of the logistics associated with the installation of renewable energy systems in remote locations of this kind, enabling their transport, deployment and installation, while reducing the costs associated with them.
To tackle this ambitious challenge, a multi-sectoral consortium of Galician SMEs has been consolidated, with the necessary skills and knowledge to encompass all the project activities: Norvento Tecnología, Norvento Ingeniería, Norvento nED Factory, TEMHA and Artabro-Samdeu.
In addition, the companies have the collaboration of CETIM (Multisectoral Research Technological centre) and CITEEC (centre for Innovation in Building and Civil Engineering).
The project has been divided into 5 activities:
- Compiling and characterisation
- Modular wind turbine design
- Modular foundation system
- Logistical developments and comprehensive auto-lifting system
- Interaction of sub-systems and field testing
Activity 1 was 100% completed in the first year of the project, completed in November 2018. All the members of the consortium participated in it, as well as the research centres involved. The completion of this activity meant the definition of the Benchmark of the concept of operation by competitors, the specifications of the system requirements, the definition of the acceptance tests and the requirements of the subsystems that resulted in the preliminary design.
Once this first activity to define objectives was completed, Activities 2, 3 and 4 started in parallel in December 2018. These three activities, led by Norvento Tecnología, TEMHA and Ártabro-Samdeu respectively, have focused on the 3 main pillars of the project: Modular wind turbine, modular foundations and auto-lifting logistical developments. The culmination of the tasks included in these activities has constituted the prelude to carry out Activity 5, the last of the project.
Activity 5: Integration of sub-systems and field testing, led by Norvento nED Factory, has culminated successfully last December, when the demonstration maneuvers of the set of technologies developed in the Modul Project were carried out at the Experimental Wind Park of A Pastoriza.
With them, the R+D+i project has been successfully completed, the mission of which has been to develop solutions capable of facilitating the implementation of clean energy in remote or difficult-to-access regions where there is a shortage of logistics means. Among the solutions developed in the project, are the design of precast foundations that are easily transportable to the installation destination, or the execution of a self-raising lattice system capable of allowing the lifting of all the components of the nED100 wind turbine, eliminating the need and the use of cranes for its complete installation.
The MODUL project, within the framework of the CONECTA PEME 2018 programme, is financed by the Government of the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Spain) through the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN) and the support of the Department of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Industry and is co-financed by ERDF Funds in the framework of axis 1 of the ERDF Galicia 2014-2020 operational programme.
