Marine Innovation & Technology uses digital prototyping to create more stable platforms for deep-sea wind turbines.
by DE Editors | Published September 7, 2010
Print
Marine Innovation & Technology, a naval architecture and offshore engineering firm, is using digital prototyping software from Autodesk, Inc. to develop the WindFloat: a small, floating platform capable of supporting large offshore wind turbines.
Autodesk Inventor Professional, Autodesk Vault Professional, and Autodesk Showcase Professional software helped enable the company to design and render the WindFloat in three weeks. The WindFloat improves on the design of existing offshore support structures by minimizing the motion caused by environmental forces such as wind, waves and currents.
The WindFloat's improved stability means that wind turbines can be placed in previously inaccessible locations where water depths exceed 50 meters and winds are nearly constant—greatly increasing the potential of offshore wind as a renewable energy resource. Each WindFloat can produce up to 10 megawatts of renewable electrical power, enough to power as many as 10,000 homes.
Through the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program — which provides software grants for emerging clean tech companies in North America and Europe — and with training support from Autodesk reseller KETIV Technologies, Marine Innovation & Technology was soon leveraging Inventor software. As a result, Marine Innovation & Technology accelerated the development of the WindFloat as well as contributed to the company's marketing efforts.
"Digital prototyping has been essential to expressing our ideas to prospective clients," says Dominique Roddier, partner of Marine Innovation & Technology and CTO of Principle Power. "We use Inventor software to build a single 3D model that provides vital technical information, and we can create exquisite renderings using Autodesk Showcase Professional, which enables clients to see a photorealistic rendering of the product before they decide to invest."
Marine Innovation & Technology's success designing the WindFloat helped it to sell the technology to renewable energy company Principle Power, which plans to use it for the commercialization of green electricity. Principle Power aims to deploy the WindFloat technology worldwide and is already actively pursuing projects in Portugal, Oregon and Maine. Using Autodesk Vault Professional software, Marine Innovation & Technology was able to securely store and distribute engineering information between project sites.
