Into the wind

"Lower Saxony is the number one wind energy state and is also at the forefront of wind energy research. I am delighted that we have one of the top addresses for international research in this field here in Oldenburg," said Minister President Stephan Weil on Thursday during his visit to ForWind, the centre for wind energy research at the universities of Oldenburg, Hanover and Bremen. On his summer trip to the Oldenburg university campus, Weil inspected the new research infrastructure of the Laboratory for Turbulence and Wind Energy Systems (WindLab), which is home to a unique turbulence wind tunnel. The facility makes it possible to reproduce and analyse the interaction of realistic turbulent wind flows on the one hand and wind turbines and wind farms on the other in the laboratory. The Oldenburg scientists have developed powerful turbulence generators and scaled research wind turbines for this purpose, which Weil was impressed by. "Wind energy is one of the main pillars of the future energy supply," said the Minister President of Lower Saxony. "The University of Oldenburg has purposefully expanded research in this field over many years and is thus actively contributing to the success of the energy transition."