Wind energy research network receives North German Science Award

The 2014 North German Science Prize has been awarded to the ‘Wind Energy Research Network’. The consortium comprises ForWind – the Wind Energy Research Centre at the Universities of Oldenburg, Hanover and Bremen – as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) North-West and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR).

Gabriele Heinen-Kljajić, Lower Saxony’s Minister for Science and Culture, presented the prize, worth 50,000 euros, on Friday during a ceremony at the Old Town Hall in Hanover. With this decision, the science departments of the northern German states are recognising the exemplary cross-institutional and interregional cooperation of the Wind Energy Research Network.

Minister Heinen-Kljajić congratulated the researchers. She said she was delighted that the prize had gone to a project from Lower Saxony. “The Wind Energy Research Network is working, for example, on the rotor blades of the future, which will make large wind turbines as efficient and quiet as possible. In doing so, the research network is making an outstanding contribution to the success of the energy transition,” emphasised the Minister. The work of the scientists involved is exceptionally innovative and will significantly advance wind energy research.

Stephan Barth, ForWind’s managing director and Chair of the steering committee of the Wind Energy Research Network, accepted the award in Hanover.