DNV GL today unveiled Turbine.Architect, a new in-house software tool enabling turbine engineers and component developers to quickly calculate the impact of their technology on Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) for a realistic wind project.
DNV GL will conduct the first public demonstration of Turbine.Architect’s capabilities at the annual European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) event in Paris between 17th-20th November.
Turbine.Architect supports turbine design and component technology development by quantification of the technical impact of design and component technology on both the turbine system as well as the entire wind farm, from the foundation to the electrical infrastructure. The software computes realistic values for the capital costs of turbine, Balance of Plant components, farm operational costs, availability and farm annual energy production. The tool’s validated engineering models produce concept-level technical specifications for turbine components and farm items, with up-to-date market intelligence translating these specifications into appropriate capital costs. Similarly, operational costs and availability are quantified using models for Operation & Maintenance that are benchmarked with real field data, DNV GL explained.
Its method to estimate energy production includes losses from rotor aerodynamics, drive train components and farm wakes, the latter by linking with DNV GL WindFarmer. Turbine.Architect also contains a discounted cash flow model where estimated costs and yield are escalated to Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE) and Net Present Value (NPV).
Ben Hendriks, Head of Section Engineering at DNV GL said: “By using Turbine.Architect in all design stages of a project, a component designer can play around with various elements, allowing them the freedom to swiftly trial different ideas. What’s more, we are offering this service to all OEMs & suppliers of key components – whether they are already a DNV GL customer or not.”