Kinewell: CTO on Revolutionising Offshore Wind & Net Zero
It’s no secret that pioneering technology plays a vital role in accelerating the route to net zero. Someone that can attest this is Dr Henna Bains, newly-appointed CTO of Kinewell Energy who brings with her experience from researching offshore wind technology at Durham University to the role.
Kinewell leverages its technology to significantly reduce offshore wind farm inter-array cabling costs, which it says it can slash by between £3m and £30m (US$3.9m and US$39.1m) per GW of installed capacity.
The company positions itself at the heart of the evolving landscape of renewable energy, acting as a beacon of technological innovation and environmental stewardship.
Along with her team, Henna — an engineer recognised as a Northern Power Women Future Leader in 2023 thanks to her significant strides in offshore wind technology — leverages Kinewell’s state-of-the-art infrastructure optimisation solutions to help developers and consultants worldwide reduce costs and improve design choices for offshore wind projects.
State-of-the-art infrastructure and optimisation solutions improving offshore wind projects
As CTO, Henna is responsible for the development of all Kinewell Energy software products, including KLOC for optimising inter-array cable layouts, KDOTS for export system design and KWOTA for wind turbine placement. She leads the technical team to deliver the company’s technology development roadmap, providing clients with world-leading software tools that accelerate the deployment of offshore wind in a cost-effective way.
KDOTS is a cornerstone of Kinewell’s innovation thanks to its ability to revolutionise offshore transmission planning.
“KDOTS is an innovative new-to-market software tool to support decisions around offshore transmission technology choices,” Henna said. “It can help by not only considering many options, but also factor in uncertainties, enabling clients to choose the most appropriate export system for their risk profile.”
The software, brought to life by Henna and her team — utilising Henna’s expertise in how advanced mathematics can be used to help wind farm developers make more risk-informed decisions — has been used to investigate significant cost drivers around hydrogen, for example.
“Offshore wind farms are typically located many kilometres offshore, which requires infrastructure to connect turbines to the onshore grid, enabling clean power to our communities,” she added. “This is the role of the offshore transmission system. These systems require considered planning to minimise costs and there is often limited relevant data during early-stage project design, which can be challenging.”
Significant technological advancements needed to overcome offshore wind challenges
With global economic pressures impacting offshore wind infrastructure projects, there is a need to continue to drive down the cost of offshore wind, Henna believes. Although significant progress has been made, further work is needed as the company deploys floating wind farms and larger projects further offshore.
“All of Kinewell Energy’s software solutions leverage AI and advanced mathematics to accelerate and reduce the cost of offshore wind, positioning Kinewell well to drive further innovation in this space,” Henna continued.
“Delivering 55GW of offshore wind by 2030 is expected to require more than 100,000 jobs in the sector and transmission infrastructure is seen as a key bottleneck for the delivery of new offshore wind. Utilising digital tools, such as ours, accelerates projects, allowing engineers to work on difficult to automate tasks.”
The UK Government’s Transmission Acceleration Action Plan advocates for design automation software to accelerate deployment, such as Kinewell’s KDOTS software.
Henna said: “So far, we have focused on solutions to support offshore wind planning and have a pipeline of exciting innovations in development to continue to meet the needs of our clients and the offshore sector. This is ultimately in line with working towards our shared goal of increased renewables. We seek to continue this work, championing collaboration over competition, through our licensing business model to strategically enable continuous innovation at scale.
“We are always keen to explore new ways we can work with others to solve new challenges that deliver significant positive impact and accelerate the global transition to net zero.”
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