By Scott Wright
ENERGY sector veteran Ian Marchant has invested in a University of Edinburgh spin-out that has developed technology to maximise production on commercial wind turbines.
The former boss of energy giant SSE is among the contributors to £300,000 of seed funding raised by REOptimize Systems, which will use the funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its wind turbine improvement technology. Johnnie Andringa, a serial entrepreneur in wind energy and other renewable technologies, is also among the investors.
REOptimize has developed proprietary artificial intelligence technology which it notes has already improved energy production on several commercial projects. It points to an increase in annual energy production of more than six per cent in two medium-scale wind turbines, and promising initial results in utility-scale turbines, the company said.
The REOptimize software uses a combination of AI and modelling techniques to analyse huge amounts of high-resolution turbine performance data.
The technology then finds new settings for the wind turbine controller which boosts the energy production without increasing loads or other negative effects in the turbine.
The company is currently working a pilot project on a Siemens 2.3 megawatt turbine in Germany, which is said to have produced encouraging initial results. REOptimize hopes to roll out the technology out to the fleet of Siemens’ turbines later this year.
Richard Crozier, managing director of REOptimize, said: “This is an exciting time for the company as we transition from a heavy R&D (research and development) focus, to launching our product in the market.
“Our successful medium scale wind projects have proven that our patented loss-minimisation technology works for our customers. The pilot project on the Siemens 2.3 MW turbine is demonstrating it also works for multi-MW turbines and utility scale customers.
“With our technology we can make a huge difference to turbine owners’ bottom line, and ultimately have a really significant impact on climate change.”
The REOptimize technology was developed over seven years by JP Echenique, the company’s chief technical officer, and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh. The company has been supported by Innovate UK ICURE funding and further grant support through the Scottish SMART programme from Scottish Enterprise.
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