AEOLUS4FUTURE — Efficient harvesting of the wind energy

Results in brief

Efficient harvesting of the wind energy

Aeolus4Future was a Marie Curie-Skłodowska Initial Training Network aiming at innovate sustainable wind energy systems for the future needs of Europe. Moreover, while progressing in the field of wind energy research Aeolus4Future trained the next generation of technical experts in the field of wind energy: Experts of tomorrow combining an in-depth engineering education with a broad overview on multi-disciplinary wind energy related topics. Wind energy is one of the most promising renewable energy resources, therefore more wind energy systems are expected to be built in Europe. With this development additional challenges follow, e.g. how to optimally design off-shore and/or on-shore structures, how to design highly efficient wind turbines and how to take advantage of high performance materials. Moreover, development of wind energy systems with reduced noise and vibrations are of importance to get the acceptance and approval of new installations by the European citizens. Aeolus4Future started on the 1st of January 2015 and ended 31st of December 2018. It provided training for 15+ Early Stage Researchers.Ten beneficiaries in seven European countries and five partners were involved in Aeolus4Future. The research covered by Aeolus4Future was divided in six work packages, covering several different aspects of wind energy systems and wind energy harvesting: WP1 – Wind turbine aerodynamics and aeroacoustics WP2 – Wind turbine load analysis, control and simulation WP3 – New generation of towers for challenging load conditions WP4 – Integrated design and reliability of support structures WP5 – New applications of wind energy systems WP6 – Monitoring and integrity of land-based wind energy converters Besides these six work packages focusing on different research subjects, three other work packages were established covering management, training and dissemination/outreach. All research focused work packages have delivered new knowledge of great value for the wind energy industry and the society, but the main output of Aeolus4Future is after all the Early Stage Researchers themselves that have taken the opportunity given to them to learn, build up new networks and to develop as researchers. This output will have a long-lasting positive impact on the European Community.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

As wind energy is considered one of the most promising renewable energy resources, energy production technologies relying on wind energy are currently flourishing under the EU ambitious plan for 2020. Market demands to prepare a generation of researchers within the EU that are able to face the challenge of fulfilling the EU ambitious plan, to sustain the production of wind energy and to innovate and promote wind energy systems (WES) for the future needs, are clearly met in AEOLUS4FUTURE. The primary research aim is to develop a sustainable WES for a variety of EU needs. There are a number of detailed scientific and technical issues that will be addressed by the project starting from identifying the wind energy potential (off-shore and on-shore, including the built environment) to the design of a sustainable and highly efficient WES. Also the new challenging load conditions imposed on wind farms located on places where existing type of wind turbine towers are not suitable require the development of new type of support structures for wind energy converters. This fosters new structural concepts taking advantage of high performance materials e.g. high strength steel and novel maintenance free fasteners. In addition, while most research efforts and practical applications of wind energy have focused on large-scale wind installations in remote offshore or onshore areas, much less attention has been given to wind energy installations near buildings. The project has a major training aim to create technical experts who will be able to lead the necessary industrial developments in the WES, and have a broad overview of a new and emerging multi-disciplinary field. The project will thus enable a number of young scientists and engineers to obtain high level training in various technical aspects of the problem, to gain an overall understanding of how this work fits into the wider EU Directives and plans for the future and in doing so to improve their career prospects.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

LULEA TEKNISKA UNIVERSITET · LULEACoordinatorSweden
ANSYS FRANCE SAS · Montigny Le BretonneuxFrance
FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING · BelgradeSerbia
GERMANISCHER LLOYD INDUSTRIAL SERVICES GMBH · HamburgGermany
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ UNIVERSITAET HANNOVER · HannoverGermany
MARTIFER-CONSTRUCOES METALOMECANICAS SA · Oliveira de FradesPortugal
RUHR-UNIVERSITAET BOCHUM · BochumGermany
SENVION GMBH · HamburgGermany
SIEMENS INDUSTRY SOFTWARE NV · LeuvenBelgium
Ss. CYRIL AND METHODIUS UNIVERSITY IN SKOPJE · SkopjeNorth Macedonia
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN · EindhovenNetherlands
THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM · BirminghamUnited Kingdom
UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA · CoimbraPortugal
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE · FlorenceItaly
VON KARMAN INSTITUTE FOR FLUID DYNAMICS · Sint-Genesius-RodeBelgium

AEOLUS4FUTURE · Efficient harvesting of the wind energy

Results in brief

Efficient harvesting of the wind energy

Project objective

Participants

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