Drones and robots to promote the deployment of renewables in the European Atlantic area

The University of Seville, CTA, CATEC, the Basque Energy Cluster, Lortek S. Coop and Alerion Technologies are the Spanish partners of the European Durable project, whose objective is to accelerate the deployment of renewables through the validation and demonstration of aerospace technologies applied in robotics for operation and maintenance activities of wind and solar energy systems.

16/04/2019

Energias-renovables.com

The application of these technologies will make it possible to automate inspection and repair tasks, reducing costs and favouring production, according to the partners of the Durable project, which has a budget of €3.9 million and is financed by the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme.

The 12 partners of the project held in Bidart (France) the meeting to launch this initiative, whose full name is ‘Drones and maintenance robots for the promotion of renewable energies in the Atlantic area’. For the first time, this project will apply aerospace disruptive, robotic, non-destructive inspection and additive manufacturing technologies to solve the current challenges in the operation and maintenance of wind and solar energy parks.

The project is led by the Ecole Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées de France and has an important Andalusian presence: the University of Seville, Corporación Tecnológica de Andalucía (CTA) and the Centro Avanzado de Tecnologías Aeroespaciales (CATEC). Also participating are the Basque Energy Cluster, Alerion Technologies and Lortek S.Coop on the Spanish side, as well as the Instituto Superior Técnico de Portugal, Dublin City University (Ireland) and the University of the West of England, Bristol (United Kingdom).

The common challenge addressed by the project is the need to change the current paradigm of the renewable energy sector through the transformation of the technological, institutional, industrial and social framework in the Atlantic area. A region that is below the European Union average in the consumption of energy from renewable sources.

Durable will end with a model and a test of the solution in a pilot project.