The final event aim to publish and disseminate the project results to a broad public. Our project coordinator AEE organized this event at the Spanish Institute for Diversification and Saving of Energy (IDAE). We were able to welcome more than 40 participants. After a short welcome by Juan Ramon Ayuso, director of the department of wind energy in IDAE, and Tomas Romagosa, technical directer of AEE, our WindEXT project was presented by various project participants (Alberto Cena (AEE), Elena Tylko (SGS), Victoria Campos (AEE) and Estefania Artigao (UCLM)). The conference participants actively participated in the subsequent discussion and evaluation of our project, as the development results aroused great interest. In addition to the project participants mentioned above, the consortium members from the Netherlands, France and Germany were also represented at the final conference.
The transnational project meetings (TPM) are held in the countries and locations of the various project partners.
Our fifth TPM took place on October 13th and 14th in Hamburg. All project partners were also able to attend this meeting in person. We are now two months before the end of the project, so that the outstanding points in particular were discussed. Above all, this included how and in what way the results of our project will be made available to the public. Furthermore, the results of the first pilot tests were discussed and the responsible project partners explained how the feedback was integrated into the individual modules. We are of the opinion that we have developed a finished product, which we will finally test in further pilot tests in the next few weeks.
At the final conference for our WindEXT project (probably on December 15th, 2022 in Madrid), we will present all the results and also inform you about the possibilities of downloading and using them.
At the end of the first day of the meeting, we had the opportunity to do a small city tour of Hamburg before we had dinner in a local brewery in the evening.
On the second day of our meeting, we made an excursion to a wind farm to give all project participants the opportunity to see a wind turbine in real life. Some project participants (with a valid "working at heights" certificate) were also able to take the elevator to the nacelle. We were also able to do exercise 2 from our WexSiM module "Emergency descent from an elevator" in a real elevator.
Finally, we visited the West Coast wind farm in the municipality of Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog in Schleswig-Holstein. It was the first wind farm in Germany to go into operation in 1987 and thus marks the beginning of the expansion of today's modern use of wind energy by wind turbines in wind farms in Germany.
Our fourth transnational project meeting took place on April 6th at the Wind Europe fair in Bilbao. After the Corona Pandemic, our project partner UTEC from Uruguay was also able to attend the meeting in person.
More than two thirds of the project duration have now passed and the development of the individual modules is nearly completed. We discussed the final details of each module during the project meeting. In addition, preparations have been made for further pilot tests so that they can be carried out in May and June 2022. The WExSiM module, which has already been completed, has already been extensively tested by the project partners with the help of the VR glasses. As in every meeting, the administrative matters were also discussed and prompt processing was requested.
Overall, we are very satisfied with the progress of our project and are pleased to be able to present the results to the public.
After revoking the travel restrictions due to the corona pandemic, we were finally able to carry out our third TPM in attendance again. Therefore we met on October 7th and 8th in Cyprus at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia. However, since not all project partners were able to travel to Cyprus, these partners were put online.
The meeting highlighted the progress of the project. Our developed Moodle platform, which is supposed to combine all developed training content, has already been completed. The first 3D videos of wind turbines from our WP3 have been completed and the SIMULWIND simulation has also been further developed. The first training scenarios have also been completed and were tested in Cyprus by the partners. A first MATLAB simulation from WP4 has been completed, with the help of which a wind turbine can be designed. The program can be run as an independent program. Extensive documents on the topics of preventive, predictive and corrective maintenance were created in WP5. In addition, the first questionnaires have been created on the Moodle platform, which can be answered after studying the documents. Extensive fault trees have been created in WP6, which represent every possible development of damage in wind turbine gearboxes. The next step here is to create corresponding learning programs.
Furthermore, all administrative matters were discussed and asked for constant cooperation, even on these not-so-exciting topics.
Overall, we, as the project consortium, can be satisfied with the progress. This has also been confirmed to us in the mid-term report.
Since it is still not possible to hold a transnational meeting in person due to the corona pandemic, we as a project team held a two-day online meeting, which, according to the funding application, should be considered a transnational meeting.
In terms of content, in addition to organizational matters, the main focus was on building the training structure and selecting the tools to be used.
At the first TPM in Madrid, the second TPM was set on June 30th, 2020. However, the current developments in the corona pandemic did not stop at our research project, so the meeting could not take place at the TU Delft. As a project team, we decided to hold this meeting as an online meeting.
In terms of content, the next steps in work packages 2 to 6 were discussed. In addition, as in every meeting, organizational issues were also discussed, in order to ensure that the project runs smoothly.
The first TPM took place at the headquarter of project leader Asociation Empresarial Eolica (AEE) in Madrid. The meeting focused on the presentation of the project and the partners, the project management, communication and dissemination activities as well as a first discussion on the intended output of the project. Due to the fact, that the consortium consists out of 11 partners, the meeting was also used to get a common understanding about the goals of the project.
On September 30, the European Researchers' Night took place. This year, the University of Castilla-La Mancha has celebrated it in Albacete, Spain.
Estefanía Artigao and Ana Simarro, brought engineering closer to the little ones through the European WINDEXT project. It was a success among the younger audience!
Here we leave you the testimony of one of the youngest participants. At just four years old, she was able to manage herself through the wind turbine.
The pilot tests took place at various partners in the respective countries. Individual modules or digital tools were presented and tested by different people (students, employees, stakeholders, etc.). The reporting of the pilot tests was carried out in two phases: first, the partners who carried out the tests produced a results report following the agreed guidelines, including the conclusions, strengths, and weaknesses, and needs for improvement. Then, AEE compiled all the reports and prepared a joint final report with the general conclusions pointing to the leaders of the different WPs to apply the proposed improvements.
As the different pilot tests were carried out, the contents and questionnaires have been adapted to obtain more specific answers about different parts of the project. As previously justified, the entire consortium decided to carry out the Pilot Tests later than the initially proposed dates. The reason was to be able to show the participants the largest possible number of contents in order to have good
feedback and to be able to improve both Moodle and the digital tools. After carrying out the pilot tests, some bugs were also detected in the experiences developed for WExSiM, which are modified after the pilot tests.
Analyzing the answers received, we see that some of them are repeated several times:
● It is necessary to have a manual on WExSiM, WExLaB and Simulwind: on how to use the googles, how to develop each practice, goals of each practice.
● Missing the evaluation mechanisms for people to evaluate if they understood the concepts.
● Some bugs need to be fixed in elevator and cell practices (During the pilot tests, notes were taken of where the bugs were located and they were sent directly to the WExSiM technicians (TESICNOR).
● Short experiences are better than long ones because people get dizzy. We should not develop practices of more than 10 minutes.
● Develop more practices for WExSiM, for example a security section is advised to raise awareness of the danger of operating systems incorrectly.
● Improve the audio of the experiences developed in WExSiM
● For the WINDEXT MOODLE it would be good to have some introduction videos explaining what the section is about and what the students are going to learn.
Our partner INESTEC has carried out a pilot tests on November 21.
Our partner INESTEC has carried out a pilot tests on December 13. Some of the TUDELFT teachers participated in the Pilot Test and commented on the importance of the technical documents developed on the MOODLE platform, as well as the maintenance checklists. This information is very useful and hard to find. The students took a tour of the different sections of MOODLE. General enthusiasm centered around the activities done on H5P for maintenance (Branching scenarios). The WExLaB digital tool was also very well received following the indications of the Delft partners who developed it. The students also tried WExSiM. Both AEE and TU DELFT were surprised at how quickly the students adapted to the WExSiM simulator, many of whom had never used the VR goggles before.
Our partner RSC has carried out a pilot tests on December 19. RSC carried out our pilot test at various companies in the wind industry, as not all modules and digital tools are of interest to every company. Since WExLaB deals with the basic design of a wind turbine, we tested this part with employees of SkyWind GmbH, a company that develops wind turbines. CaDWEx deals with the topic of damage analysis, especially in gearboxes of wind turbines, which is why we tested it at cmc GmbH, whose core area is condition monitoring. GEO, DWTS and CWS are active in the field of technical operation and maintenance, which is why the Moodle course is interesting for these companies in view of whether the content of our training course meets the requirements for new employees.
In this year's edition of the Wind Farm Service Technician course that AEE has been organizing for 10 years, WExSiM simulator and the WINDEXT MOODLE has been included as part of the training program. In this way, students could have their first experience with VR, and it has been an important tool for them to understand better what it was explained in the lectures. They also checked the Moodle and all the information that is inside, including the virtual videos
using H5P.
Our partner DP2i has carried out several pilot tests in the last few months.
More pilot test at Institut Santa Eulàlia
UTEC participated in the Latam Renovables event that took place on July 26 and 27, where the WindEXT project was presented, and participants could try WExSiM. For more information click here.
The Pilot Test has been organized by our project partner UCLM. The WINDEXT partner UCLM carried out tests in the Faculty of Industrial Engineers, in Albacete, part of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). The participants were students of the 4th year (last year) of the Electrical Engineering Degree. The pilot test was carried out in two different sessions of 2 hours each. For this, two sets of the Oculus Quest 2 were made available. The sessions were developed accessing the WINDEXT Moodle platform and covered part of the WExViR tool and part of the WExSiM tool.
The Pilot Test has been carried at the WindTalent event organized by our project leader AEE and the school of industrial organization (EOI).
The Pilot Test has been carried out in Leon.
The first Pilot Test has been carried out in Pamplona at the TESICNOR center.
The students of the National Reference Center for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency (CENIFER) have been testing WExSiM, the Virtual Reality simulator of WindEXT.
CENIFER students have dedicated two sessions to identify improvements in experiences that recreate the work activity of the wind sector. The feedback received was very satisfactory. "It's very real, really," admits Diego Salinas, a second-year student in the Higher Degree in Renewable Energies who has worked for four years in wind farms. His partner, Verónica Aceña, agrees that through virtual reality "you can see very clearly the work you have to do and the risks you may have”.
WindEXT was present at the WindEurope Annual Event that took place in Bilbao from April 5 to 7, 2022. All those attending the fair could try WExSiM, the virtual simulator, at the AEE stand. In addition, on April 6, the entire windext consortium was at the stand to present the project and answer questions from the attendees.
