Commercialisation Strategy of Innovative Modular Wind Turbine

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**Problem**The UK Government has a 36GW offshore wind target by 2030, however turbines are currently only available from two EU manufacturers and are reliant on massive installation infrastructure (cranes and jackup barges) of which there is a global vessel shortage. As a result, there is a bottleneck in both supply and installation.The UK is also targeting 60% locally manufactured content, not viable with the current supply chain.Onshore, many sites are suitable for wind generation, but existing turbines don't meet the needs of the landowners. For example, many farmers are interested in microgeneration but don't currently have an affordable option with suitable pay back times to justify the investment.**Solution**Our technology addresses these challenges with an innovative new designs that can be built easily in the UK and deployed easily on or offshore without specialist infrastructure.We aim to start by demonstrating and marketing our concept with a 5kW unit suitable for small landowners. We estimate each 5kW module would produce 11,000kWh p.a. and cost around £25k each (with a single foundation/support structure costing around £15k). The modules can be stacked on the same foundation and so a 4-stack 20kW vertical array would cost c.£115k producing an annual ROI of 9% during 10 year payback (free after). Success of 5KW supports scaleup to offshore 1.5MW module.**Innovation**Benefits are:* Small modules which make bigger turbines can be rapidly developed.* No need for cranes or jack up barges offshore: can be easily built in any UK shipyard onshore and floated to site (offshore version)* Increased availability and reliability (continues generating power in event of module failure).* Reduced environmental impact (20% less material, increased recyclability, at least 20% less non-recyclables).Unlike existing state-of-the-art:* Our innovation is modular and can be stacked to make a large multi-megawatt turbine in a short time frame.* Our technology is the first practical concept to combine a conventional wind turbines with AWEC (kite) systems further reducing environmental impact by 30%.Our patented shroud structure can reduce the moving turbine size by 20%, (it also prevents the kite from entanglement in case of AWEC failure),**Project Approach**We have plans to install our first 5kW demonstration unit in 2025, but we must raise additional investment in order to achieve this (we've already secured £80k match funding). This phase of the project focuses on building the business case and gathering evidence to access further investment.