The European Wind Energy Technology Platform stressed in their report ´Workers wanted: The EU wind energy sector skills gap´, that each year nearly 4,000 adequately trained graduates enter the wind energy industry. The importance of enabling qualified personnel in the O&M sector through appropriate training is therefore a major issue. The goal of the present project is to develop specialized training to allow reducing the energy costs by reducing the operation expenses, increase the quality of operation & maintenance services and thus extending the lifetime of the wind turbine generators In this context, a consortium of European key players in the Wind Industry (entrepreneurial associations and maintenance companies), Universities and training centres propose the creation of the reference training course WINDEXT. This project will reinforce the creation of new companies in the maintenance activities and also in new areas such: life extension, integration of new digital tools and advanced maintenance, recycling and reuse of components.The main objectives are:• Providing a better understanding of the use of simulators and digital approaches for maintenance and lifetime extension.• Teaching on diagnostic procedures to evaluate the situation of the different components.• Teaching on the methods to evaluate the factors affecting the loss of availability• Selection of the best procedures to dismantle a wind farm regarding the final use of the WTG components • Teaching on the most appropriate methods for logistics, recycling and/or re-use of machinery, blades and main components.• To design and develop e-learning platforms to the educational resources• Consolidation of Independent Services ProvidersThis project fulfils the KA priorities by fostering the innovation in HE levels, in an area traditionally reserved to professional teaching centres and the reinforcement of professionalism in existing companies but also fostering the creation of new business.
To integrate the simulators developed in Vocational centres; Evaluation of the specific needs for training maintenances workers in the wind sector; To define the structure of the standard training course to be integrated in a standard platform; To elaborate specific contents for the different sections; To develop Virtual Reality and digital tools for supporting the above contents; To identify additional business opportunities related to the the maintenance sector and the use of digital tools
The project responds to the necessity of qualified personnel for the operation and maintenance of Wind Farms, which was clear when the project was presented in 2019, but has become more critical in the last years, due to the growth of new projects linked to the progressive ecological transition. The project combines the elaboration of specific contents, with the intention of creating a standard of maintenance training, as well as the introduction of virtual reality and advanced computer tools
<< Background >> The project responds to the necessity of qualified personnel for the operation and maintenance of Wind Farms, which was clear when the project was presented in 2019, but has become more critical in the last years, due to the growth of new projects linked to the progressive ecological transition. The project combines the elaboration of specific contents, with the intention of creating a standard of maintenance training, as well as the introduction of virtual reality and advanced computer tools << Objectives >> To integrate the simulators developed in Vocational centres; Evaluation of the specific needs for training maintenances workers in the wind sector; To define the structure of the standard training course to be integrated in a standard platform; To elaborate specific contents for the different sections; To develop Virtual Reality and digital tools for supporting the above contents; To identify additional business opportunities related to the the maintenance sector and the use of digital tools << Implementation >> It has been carried out following the work program of the Application Form in terms of WP organization, time schedule and partners involvement. It is true that the project started with COVID mobility restrictions but this facilitate the organization of online meetings that helped to collect the opinions and to coordinate partner’s capabilities, especially important in the project start up. The pilot tests and bilateral meetings, showed the appropriateness of the project scope. << Results >> a. Background documents, are the greatest part of the deliverables included in the Application Form (www.windext.com); b. The MOODLE WINDEXT Platform, organised as a training course but the different SECTIONS, MODULES, LESSONS and Digital Tools can be used (http://windext.cs.ucy.ac.cy/moodle/; it requests a password for a specific email address). c. Digital Tools: WExViR for H5P , WExLaB for Matlab and Simulink, WExSiM for the Oculus quest 2, CadWEx for a specific software, Simulwind for Vibe.