The University of Malta will be hosting the 2nd International Offshore Wind Technical Conference (IOWTC 2019) being organised by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
The event will be held from 3 to 6 November 2019 at the Corinthia Hotel, St George's Bay, St Julian's. Details about the event are available at .
Offshore wind turbine technology is breaking new ground and reached higher levels of maturity, with the costs of electricity from wind farms at sea experiencing reductions of more than 50% over the past five years.
Offshore wind is an important player that will contribute towards achieving the development of the Blue economy. Yet, a number of engineering challenges remain; existing commercial technology is based on the use of seabed-mounted structures such as monopoles that are only viable for supporting wind turbines in shallow waters, where sea depths do not exceed 50 metres.
The past decade has seen a significant drive by both academia and industry to develop floating wind turbine technology which will allow the feasible exploitation of wind energy available in deep waters, at sites that are further away the coast. A number of full-scale prototype floating wind turbines have been tested, paving the way to make offshore wind harvesting in deep waters a viable resource, thanks to the various innovations in floating support structure design and installation procedures.
The floating wind market is expected to become a major industry by the year 2030. Many countries have not yet been able to exploit their own offshore wind resources due to constraints. A case in point is the Mediterranean region which is characterised by comparatively deeper nearshore seas and the plethora of coastal stakeholders and activities. These make wind project development much more challenging until technologies that allow wind project implementation further offshore become mainstream.
IOWTC 2019 will draw together researchers, academics, policy makers and industry to discuss the latest scientific and technological developments in the wind industry. Participants will have the opportunity to attend leading edge workshops on current topics, including new offshore wind turbine concepts, offshore wind exploitation in deep waters, wind turbine design and performance simulation, wind farm siting, construction and new projects. This event is a must for anyone keen to gain a first-hand insight into the offshore wind energy sector.
This conference is co-sponsored by the Ministry for Energy and Water Management (Malta), Principle Power, Vryhof and Bureau Veritas.
For further information about the IOWTC2019 event, contact Professor Tonio Sant (Department of Mechanical Engineering) or Dr Robert N. Farrugia (Institute for Sustainable Energy).
