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The aim of this work is to describe several experiences of STEMbach in different areas: engineering, economics, materials, etc. The STEMbach is a program carried out by high school students during their two years of study to obtain their High School Diploma (equivalent to A-levels), designed for both the Humanities and Sciences modalities, and created alongside the Galician strategy for digital education. It encourages the vocation of the scholars towards scientific and technological research and allows a connection directly with the college education. The STEM works explained in this work were developed between the University of A Coruña and several high schools located in the region of Galicia (North-West of Spain). Results were very constructive for promoting STEM careers.

This paper defines a methodology for the economic feasibility analysis of a floating offshore wind farm composed of tensioned leg platforms, which are part of the EU ARCWIND research project. In this context, the phases and subphases of its life-cycle process are considered to deal with aspects such as bathymetry, characteristics of the platforms, distance from the farm to shore, distance from the farm to port and offshore wind speed. All the costs and other external parameters such as capital cost, electric tariff, interest rate, percentage of financing and corporate tax have been analysed to calculate the internal rate of return, net present value, discounted pay-back period and levelized cost of energy of the farm. This work studies a farm composed of TLP offshore wind platforms designed by CENTEC and located at Ribadeo in Spain. Results indicate the costs and the economic feasibility of this platform for deep waters. They indicate that the platform is economically feasible for the location selected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floating offshore wind energy could be one alternative in exploiting ocean wind energy resources when there is high depth as, for instance, in Spain. Therefore, in order to develop this type of offshore energy, floating offshore platforms are needed. The aim of this article is to characterise the importance of the non-direct cost which is implied in the manufacturing of a floating platform. For this purpose, an activity-based costing method will be used. It will distribute direct labour, material and activity costs of the platform taking into account that they are constructed in a shipyard. The methodology has been applied to three different floating offshore wind platforms: semisubmersible, spar and tension leg platform. It introduces a new study concept into the manufacturing process of shipyards: activity costs. In this sense, some results indicate that activity costs are of great importance, representing more than 40% of the total costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work is to establish a framework for the development of an economic analysis tool for floating offshore wind platforms built in concrete. The operation and usefulness of the beta version of a software, called Arcwind, is explained. It calculates the main economic aspects of offshore wind platforms built in concrete considering different locations in the European Atlantic Arc. This software allows the user to select different input parameters such as: the type of platform, the installation area of the farm, its specific location and in this way create different analysis scenarios. This paper analyzes the case study to install TELWIND® offshore concrete floating platforms in the Canary Islands, in Spain. The software provides data on the main economic parameters of the farm, such as Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE), Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Pay-Back Period (PBP), as well as the main costs: cost of conception and definition, cost of design and development, cost of manufacturing, cost of installation, cost of operation and cost of dismantling. Using these parameters, a first analysis of the viability of this type of floating technology built on concrete is shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to develop a methodology for using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) spatial analysis in the development of a floating offshore wind farm. When you plan a floating offshore wind farm it is very important to determine the areas where wind resource is high, which will produce good economic results in terms of the feasibility of the farm. However, the present paper analyses how some restrictions (environmental areas, navigation restricted areas, depth, ports, shipyards, etc.) affect to the floating offshore wind farm. The tool developed allows increasing the quantity of these restrictions as the user needs. The procedure has been considered for the Galician area (North-West of Spain), a region that has experience in onshore wind. Therefore, the GIS tool analyses the site selection for a floating offshore wind farm. • GIS tool analyses the site selection for a floating offshore wind farm. • Determine the areas. • Restrictions affect to the floating offshore wind farm. • You can select the quantity of restrictions. • The Galician area (North-West of Spain) has studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A technique to analyse the economic viability of offshore farms composed of wave energy converters is proposed. Firstly, the inputs, whose value will be considered afterwards in the economic step, was calculated using geographic information software. Secondly, the energy produced by each wave converter was calculated. Then the economic factors were computed. Finally, the restriction that considers the depth of the region (bathymetry) was put together with the economic outputs, whose value depends on the floating Wave Energy Converter (WEC). The method proposed was applied to the Cantabric and Atlantic coasts in the north of Spain, a region with a good offshore wave energy resource. In addition, three representative WECs were studied: Pelamis, AquaBuoy and Wave Dragon; and five options for electric tariffs were analysed. Results show the Wave Energy Converter that has the best results regarding its LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy), IRR (Internal Rate of Return) and NPV (Net Present Value), and which area is best for the development of a wave farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the economic feasibility of offshore wind farms installed in deep waters considering their internal rate of return (IRR), net present value (NPV), and levelized cost of energy (LCOE). The method proposed has three phases: geographic phase, economic phase, and restrictions phase. The purpose of the geographic step is to obtain the input values, which will be used in the economic phase. Then, the economic parameters are calculated considering the inputs provided previously. Finally, the bathymetric restriction is added to the economic maps. The case study focused on the Cantabric and North-Atlantic coasts of Spain, areas that have not been studied previously in economic terms regarding floating offshore wind technology. Moreover, several alternatives have been considered, taking into account the type of floating offshore wind structure and the electric tariff. Results indicate which is the best floating offshore wind structure with respect to LCOE, IRR, and NPV, and where is the best location for the connection of a floating offshore wind farm in the region selected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is to develop a software to calculate the economic parameters so as to determine the feasibility of a floating offshore renewable farm in a selected location. The software can calculate the economic parameters of several types of offshore renewable energies, as follows: one renewable energy (floating offshore wind-WindFloat, tension leg platform (TLP), and spar; floating wave energy-Pelamis and AquaBuoy), hybrid offshore wind and wave systems (Wave Dragon and W2Power), and combined offshore wind and waves with different systems (independent arrays, peripherally distributed arrays, uniformly distributed arrays, and non-uniformly distributed arrays). The user can select several inputs, such as the location, configuration of the farm, type of floating offshore platform, type of power of the farm, life-cycle of the farm, electric tariff, capital cost, corporate tax, steel cost, percentage of financing, or interest and capacity of the shipyard. The case study is focused on the Galicia region (NW of Spain). The results indicate the economic feasibility of a farm of floating offshore renewable energy in a particular location in terms of its costs, levelized cost of energy (LCOE), internal rate of return (IRR), net present value (NPV), and discounted pay-back period. The tool allows for establishing conclusions about the dependence of the offshore wind resource parameters, the main distances (farm-shore, farm-shipyard, and farm-port), the parameters of the waves, and the bathymetry of the area selected., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest

The objective of this paper is to examine the economic aspects of a concrete offshore wind floating platform in the Atlantic Arc of Europe (Portugal and Spain). The life-cycle cost of a concrete floating offshore wind platform is considered to calculate the main economic parameters that will define the economic feasibility of the offshore wind farm. The case of study is the concrete floating offshore wind platform Telwind ® , a spar platform with a revolutionary way of installing using a self-erecting telescopic tower of the wind turbine. In addition, the study analyses thirteen locations in Spain and twenty in Portugal, including the Atlantic islands of both countries. Results indicate that the economically feasible location to install a concrete offshore wind farm composed of concrete platforms is the Canary Islands (Spain) and Flores (Portugal).