Train2Wind · Training school on entrainment in offshore wind power

Training school on entrainment in offshore wind power

The Train2Wind project started out of curiosity about how many wind turbines can be packed close together in the North Sea, giving consideration to effect of wake losses. The plans for buildout offshore, but especially in the North Sea were large and getting even larger, in the tens of GW. While wake modelling behind a single turbine has been studied since the 1980’s, wind farm wakes and the effects of large wind farms only came into focus in the 2000s - 2010s. Wind farm wakes being thought of as independent of the development of the atmospheric boundary layer were investigated then, but for the very large wind farms coming, it is intuitively clear that there also should be an influence on the wider weather and wind resource patterns. Accordingly, Train2Wind chose to concentrate on very extended wind farms or wind farm clusters, which extend with a large density of turbines for so long that the atmosphere reaches a new equilibrium. Not taking the effects of large wind farms on their neighbours sufficiently into account, can lead to tens of billions of euros of misplaced investments, especially in such good wind power areas as the North Sea. The overall objectives were therefore to figure out how closely one can space wind farms, how the atmospheric boundary layer develops in the vicinity of wind farms, investigate the role of turbulence and to further develop experimental and modelling techniques. The central common investigation we planned was an experimental campaign at a wind farm in Southern Denmark, close enough to shore to fly there with the UAS, measure, and turn back to land, aided by an extensive campaign using floating lidars and scanning lidars installed on the offshore substation. Unfortunately, the flight permissions for the UAS did not arrive in time, leaving the campaign with nearly a year of lidar data from the crew transfer vessel, plus some scanning lidar data for a few months from the substation. The great support from the wind farm owner RWE was paramount to the results. The UAS crews found other areas of investigation. Additionally, Train22Wind had three main training objectives with early-stage researchers (ESRs) at the centre: ▪ to give the fellows the necessary skills to execute their particular research project successfully, ▪ to give them a broad background in wind energy, so that they are able to frame their own project in the larger picture, ▪ to give them transferable skills for further personal development, including the employment of better research practices and efficient communication/dissemination/exploitation of research. Of the 19 fellows trained, 7 have gotten further employment elsewhere, while the rest is still employed with the host institution. 4 fellows already finished their PhDs.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union