Papers by Fiona Devoy McAuliffe
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Mar 31, 2023
The content of the publication herein is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not nece... more The content of the publication herein is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the European Commission or its services. While the information contained in the documents is believed to be accurate, the authors(s) or any other participant in the LEANWIND consortium make no warranty of any kind with regard to this material including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Neither the LEANWIND Consortium nor any of its members, their officers, employees or agents shall be responsible or liable in negligence or otherwise howsoever in respect of any inaccuracy or omission herein. Without derogating from the generality of the foregoing neither the LEANWIND Consortium nor any of its members, their officers, employees or agents shall be liable for any direct or indirect or consequential loss or damage caused by or arising from any information advice or inaccuracy or omission herein.
Proceedings of the European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference
The need to move towards a low-carbon economy has brought about the emergence of various renewabl... more The need to move towards a low-carbon economy has brought about the emergence of various renewable energy sectors, including Marine Renewable Energy (MRE). However, after many years of research and development, the MRE industry still faces challenges in achieving commercial viability, especially regarding wave energy. Whilst it remains possible that successful wave energy technologies exist in the traditional research trend, it is also appropriate to explore alternatives that produce energy by different approaches. Wave-induced lift force devices may be the possibility to move beyond traditional wave energy technologies using diffraction and/or buoyancy forces. In this context arises the LiftWEC, a promising configuration of a lift-based wave energy converter. The LiftWEC device couples with the waves through lift forces generated by two hydrofoils that rotate in a single direction aligned orthogonally to the direction of wave propagation. To fully evaluate the overall advantages of...
Wind Energy
Operations and maintenance (O&M) of floating offshore wind farms (FOWFs) poses various challenges... more Operations and maintenance (O&M) of floating offshore wind farms (FOWFs) poses various challenges in terms of greater distances from the shore, harsher weather conditions, and restricted mobility options. Robotic systems have the potential to automate some parts of the O&M leading to continuous feature‐rich data acquisition, operational efficiency, along with health and safety improvements. There remains a gap in assessing the techno‐economic feasibility of robotics in the FOWF sector. This paper investigates the costs and benefits of incorporating robotics into the O&M of a FOWF. A bottom‐up cost model is used to estimate the costs for a proposed multi‐robot platform (MRP). The MRP houses unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to conduct the inspection of specific FOWF components. Emphasis is laid on the most conducive O&M activities for robotization and the associated technical and cost aspects. The simulation is conducted in Windfarm Operations and Main...
Wind Energy, Jul 25, 2022
Marine operations required to transfer technicians and equipment represent a significant proporti... more Marine operations required to transfer technicians and equipment represent a significant proportion of the total cost of offshore wind. The profile of sites being considered for floating offshore wind farms (FOWFs), e.g., further from the shore and in harsher environments, indicates that these costs need to be assessed by taking into account the maintenance requirements and restricted weather windows. There is an immediate need to investigate the potential use of robotic systems in the wind farm's operations and maintenance (O&M) activities, to reduce the need for costly manned visits. The use of robotic systems can be critical, not only to replace repetitive activities and bring down the levelised cost of energy but also to reduce the health and safety risks by supporting human operators in performing the desired inspections. This paper provides a review of the state of the art in the applications of robotics for O&M of FOWFs. Emerging technology trends and associated challenges and opportunities are highlighted, followed by an outline of the agenda for future research in this domain.
Social Science Research Network, 2022
Energy Procedia, Sep 1, 2016
This paper investigates three decision problems with potential to optimize operation and maintena... more This paper investigates three decision problems with potential to optimize operation and maintenance and logistics strategies for offshore wind farms: the timing of predetermined jack-up vessel campaigns; selection of crew transfer vessel fleet; and timing of annual services. These problems are compared both in terms of potential cost reduction and the stochastic variability and associated uncertainty of the outcome. Predetermined jack-up vessel campaigns appear to have a high cost reduction potential but also a higher stochastic variability than the other decision problems. The paper also demonstrates the benefits and difficulties of considering problems together rather than solving them in isolation.
Proceedings Of The Institution Of Mechanical Engineers, Part M: Journal Of Engineering For The Maritime Environment, Jan 22, 2023
Accurate and up-to-date Geographic Information System (GIS) and Techno Economic (TE) tools are pe... more Accurate and up-to-date Geographic Information System (GIS) and Techno Economic (TE) tools are pertinent to helping to develop the renewable energy sector. This paper reviews the state of the art in existing GIS and TE tools for renewable energy and proposes a methodology to develop a coupled GIS-TE software tool that is geared specifically to Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) applications and bespoke to Irish and Western UK waters. Methods for approaching GIS and TE analysis within existing tools for renewable energy are presented and compared. Many existing tools of this nature have some interesting functionalities, but most are unsuitable for MRE; are limited by a lack of information on both the technology and the site; and focus solely either on GIS or TE aspects of analysis. Additionally, almost all of those with a TE focus are not open access. The proposed tool aims to incorporate increased resolution and site relevance of resource data; the most up-to-date geospatial data for site selection; and will provide site specific TE indicators and recommendations for contemporary MRE devices. The result will be the development of an open-access GIS-TE software tool for MRE.
Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, Mar 1, 2020
The integration of offshore wind and wave or tidal energy devices could be an important step towa... more The integration of offshore wind and wave or tidal energy devices could be an important step towards realizing the economic competitiveness of less advanced renewable energy technologies. The foundations of such integrated solutions require a major share of investment in these technologies. Monopile foundations are currently the market-leader for offshore wind farms. This paper reviews normative design methodologies and presents a simplified concept to assess the structural steel design implications of incorporating a point absorber wave energy device to a monopile for selected sites off the East and West coasts of Ireland. The consequent increase in steel tonnage were computed for both locations. The design analysis was validated against existing studies estimating the increase in wall thickness of monopiles due to the combination of wind and wave devices for several design scenarios. The financial implications of the combination were assessed considering the impact of each scenario on the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). The work provides a review-driven methodology as a tool to obtain an initial design-based estimate of LCOE comparisons for similar devices and allows making robust decisions on development or choice of devices for a particular location. This approach will be attractive to both researchers and practitioners alike in marine renewable energy, providing relevant, connected and comparable information from first principles to economic impact.
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
This paper has developed an operation and maintenance (O&M) model for projected 20 MW tidal strea... more This paper has developed an operation and maintenance (O&M) model for projected 20 MW tidal stream farm case studies at two sites in the northeast Atlantic in France and at EMEC’s Fall of Warness site in the UK. The annual energy production, number of incidents, and downtimes of the farms for corrective and planned (preventive) maintenance strategies are estimated using Monte Carlo simulations that vary weather windows, repair vessel availabilities, and mean annual failure rates modelled by Weibull distributions. The trade-offs between the mean annual failure rates, time availability, O&M costs, and energy income minus the variable O&M costs were analysed. For all scenarios, a 5-year planned maintenance strategy could considerably decrease the mean annual failure rates by 37% at both sites and increase the net energy income. Based on a detailed sensitivity analysis, the study has suggested a simple decision-making method that examines how the variation in the mean annual failure rat...
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part M: Journal of Engineering for the Maritime Environment
Accurate and up-to-date Geographic Information System (GIS) and Techno Economic (TE) tools are pe... more Accurate and up-to-date Geographic Information System (GIS) and Techno Economic (TE) tools are pertinent to helping to develop the renewable energy sector. This paper reviews the state of the art in existing GIS and TE tools for renewable energy and proposes a methodology to develop a coupled GIS-TE software tool that is geared specifically to Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) applications and bespoke to Irish and Western UK waters. Methods for approaching GIS and TE analysis within existing tools for renewable energy are presented and compared. Many existing tools of this nature have some interesting functionalities, but most are unsuitable for MRE; are limited by a lack of information on both the technology and the site; and focus solely either on GIS or TE aspects of analysis. Additionally, almost all of those with a TE focus are not open access. The proposed tool aims to incorporate increased resolution and site relevance of resource data; the most up-to-date geospatial data for sit...
Wind Energy
Marine operations required to transfer technicians and equipment represent a significant proporti... more Marine operations required to transfer technicians and equipment represent a significant proportion of the total cost of offshore wind. The profile of sites being considered for floating offshore wind farms (FOWFs), e.g., further from the shore and in harsher environments, indicates that these costs need to be assessed by taking into account the maintenance requirements and restricted weather windows. There is an immediate need to investigate the potential use of robotic systems in the wind farm's operations and maintenance (O&M) activities, to reduce the need for costly manned visits. The use of robotic systems can be critical, not only to replace repetitive activities and bring down the levelised cost of energy but also to reduce the health and safety risks by supporting human operators in performing the desired inspections. This paper provides a review of the state of the art in the applications of robotics for O&M of FOWFs. Emerging technology trends and associated challenge...
As the Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) sector develops, industry is seeking economically viable dev... more As the Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) sector develops, industry is seeking economically viable devices for commercial deployment. This paper examines the potential of combined platforms for the MRE sector, presenting a unified economic and reliability assessment methodology. The aim of combining two forms of energy production in one platform is to add value. In this study, the focus is adding value from a reliability perspective and improving the financial feasibility. With this scope in mind, the paper assesses the viability of a case-study concept combining a wind turbine with twenty wave energy converters in a floating platform considering: energy balance and power production availability; risk and reliability; and cost. The assessment approach combines lifecycle cost analysis with a Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) study that models the impact of operations and maintenance activities on power production availability and costs. The study identifies synergies of ...
ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering, 2021
Levelized cost of energy (LCoE) is the most common metric used in renewable energy assessments. H... more Levelized cost of energy (LCoE) is the most common metric used in renewable energy assessments. However, this can be a very complex calculation with numerous methodologies depending on the perspective taken. Inputs including costs, energy production are generally forecasts and predictions based on publicly available information; therefore, they are key areas of uncertainty. Elements of the calculation are site or region specific such as the tax rate or inclusion of grid connection costs. The business case and financial assumptions applied will be very project specific, e.g., the discount rate applied. These numerous variables and uncertainties must be fully understood in order to effectively apply the metric or review and compare LCoEs. Therefore, this paper provides a comprehensive set of LCoE methodologies that provide a reference basis for researchers. A case study demonstrates the application of these methods and the variation in results illustrates the importance of correctly s...
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Papers by Fiona Devoy McAuliffe