June 17, 2020– RCAM Technologies has been awarded $3-million from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to further develop and assess its next-generation wind turbine towers and offshore anchors. The contract, which was fully executed today, will develop 3D printing technologies for use in California that are manufactured using regionally available concrete materials for onshore and offshore wind turbines. RCAM’s wind energy products will benefit California’s electric ratepayers as it moves towards a zero-carbon electricity mix by reducing the cost of clean energy and creating high paying jobs and local economic benefits.
The project advances the technology readiness level of RCAM’s 140-m 3D concrete printed tower for a 7.5-MW next-generation land-based wind turbine. The project team includes world-leading research, engineering and wind supply chain members including the University of California Irvine, WSP USA, DNV GL Energy USA, and Fraunhofer IEE. A technical advisory group consisting of nine expert advisors, customers, and suppliers will advise the team. The project scope includes design, fabrication, pilot testing and demonstration of tower sections at up to half-scale in a University of California, Irvine laboratory and in outdoor environments. The project also demonstrates the viability of using 3DCP to manufacture offshore wind turbine anchors for floating wind plants, assesses the feasibility of using 3DCP to manufacture a long-term ocean energy storage system in a California port, expands California’s commercial and university 3DCP R&D capabilities, and develops California’s 3DCP workforce.
“ California has more offshore wind gross-potential than any other state in the continental US. When combined with onshore wind energy, its total wind resources could provide more than twice the electricity California presently consumes, while also providing high-paying jobs and economic benefits to its ratepayers. This CEC award is critical to continued development of the next generation wind technologies California needs to access these vast wind resources”
Jason Cotrell, chief executive officer of RCAM Technologies
“My research lab and team at UCI are excited to collaborate with RCAM and industry leaders to develop and demonstrate the innovative concrete 3D printing technology for next-generation wind. Through university research, we’ll be able to answer the key questions across different disciplines in concrete materials science and engineering, robotics, additive manufacturing, and structural engineering, in order to enable large-scale 3D printing of reinforced concrete for wind energy structures with higher resilience and efficiency. This CEC funding also allows us to educate our graduate and undergraduate students, and postdoc researchers to train the next generation workforce specializing in concrete additive manufacturing for land-based and offshore wind.”
Dr. Mo Li, Co-Principal Investigator of this CEC award and a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine.