Wind energy is seen as a pillar of the energy transition. But is this still the case? Dr Stephan Barth, Managing Director of ForWind, on offshore wind farms, floating wind turbines and Germany's unique wind energy research network.
QUESTION: At the beginning of this year, the cooperation agreement for the Wind Energy Research Network was signed in Berlin - a research network of ForWind, the German Aerospace Centre and the Fraunhofer IWES. What are the aims of the alliance?
BARTH: Wind energy is a strongly interdisciplinary field of research. The research network, this unique nationwide association of large-scale research institutions and university networks - which is already attracting a great deal of international attention - allows the available resources and expertise to be utilised optimally. The participants can jointly develop research strategies and harmonise their approach. In this way, research goals are achieved more quickly and redundant structures are avoided. New findings and developments can therefore be translated into efficient technological solutions more quickly. This helps to strengthen the domestic wind energy industry so that it can maintain its international role as a technology leader.
QUESTION: A total of 600 scientists are involved in the research network. What is its research focus?
BARTH: The Wind Energy Research Network is primarily concerned with technological issues: How can wind turbines and wind farms be improved and optimised in terms of their design, production, construction and operation? What will the next generation of turbines and farms look like and how will they be operated?
The research network has a broad range of expertise - that is its strength. From the wind resource to the energy system, all competences and expertise are available. This means we can work on the entire energy conversion chain and are not limited to optimising individual components.
QUESTION: The first major research project has already started - is it focussing on the development of intelligent rotor blades?
BARTH: Unlike today's rotor blades, intelligent rotor blades can influence the wind flow locally. In this way, the efficiency of future wind turbines is to be increased even further without jeopardising reliability. The complex interplay of the various disciplines required for this, ranging from expertise in turbulent flows to the production of fibre composite components, is a major challenge that cannot be met by a single Institute alone. This first major project, which the Federal Ministry for the Environment is funding with twelve million euros, demonstrates the clout of the Wind Energy Research Network
QUESTION: What is Oldenburg's contribution to the wind energy research network?
BARTH: The University of Oldenburg is involved in ForWind with several groups from the Institute of Physics and the Department of Computing Science. The main focus is on energy meteorology and energy informatics, experimental and numerical turbulence and flow research as well as wind energy systems. Oldenburg thus concentrates strongly on wind physics and system description and optimisation. The scientists of the Fraunhofer IWES project group "Computational Fluid- and System Dynamics" based in Oldenburg support us in this endeavour.
Wind energy will be the backbone of Europe's future energy supply.
QUESTION: The research network is conducting research into onshore and offshore wind energy. Is wind energy positioned to largely replace traditional energy sources?
BARTH: Wind energy will be the backbone of Europe's future energy supply in the coming decades. However, it is not enough to simply want to replace traditional energy sources such as coal or gas in terms of quantity. The different characteristics of the respective traditional and renewable forms of energy place special demands on the entire energy system, i.e. on generation, distribution and consumption. This means that the energy system must be reorganised. In this context, wind turbines, in conjunction with other forms of renewable energy, will increasingly have to take on tasks and functions that are necessary for the stable operation of the energy system. Today, modern wind turbines can already provide system services on a large scale. Another challenge is the joint operation of many individual wind turbines as a wind power plant. ForWind's research provides valuable insights into this and thus contributes to a reliable energy supply for the future.
QUESTION: Federal Environment Minister Peter Altmaier, who welcomed the founding of the wind energy research network, described offshore wind farms as the "cathedral of the energy transition". Yet they have been heavily criticised recently.
BARTH: Offshore wind farms play an important role in the overall concept of a future energy system - and not only because of the often exclusively mentioned more constant and stronger wind at sea. Wind at sea is much more decoupled from wind on land than would be the case if wind energy were only distributed on land. This means that the simultaneous use of onshore and offshore wind energy can achieve a much greater equalisation and thus a much higher availability of renewable energy than if the focus were solely on onshore or offshore. Offshore wind energy therefore also contributes to the fact that the future need for storage can be greatly reduced. Storage is the most expensive component in the energy system, which is why offshore wind energy can reduce costs in the future overall system.
QUESTION: Will floating wind turbines play a role?
BARTH: Research is being carried out worldwide on floating wind turbines, and individual prototypes are already in use. The reason for this is the great water depths in some windy regions, for example in Norway. The seabed slopes so steeply there that a conventional foundation would be far too expensive. Therefore, floating concepts will also play a role - but not in Germany. The depth of the North Sea and Baltic Sea is too shallow for floating wind turbines to be necessary and profitable.
The expansion of the electricity grid is of particular importance.
QUESTION: Offshore energy is always associated with the challenge of transporting the energy over long distances to the load centres in Germany. Can this pay off? Or have onshore plants long since left offshore energy behind?
BARTH: It is true that the large amount of energy available offshore cannot be fully absorbed in the rather sparsely populated coastal region of northern Germany. The expansion of the electricity grids is therefore particularly important - but this would be necessary even without offshore wind energy. The restructuring of the energy system as part of the energy transition has consequences for the electricity grids - from the transmission grid to the distribution grid. However, the entire system must be taken into account when analysing costs. The equalisation of electricity that can be achieved with the help of offshore wind energy, for example, helps to reduce storage and capacity power plants.
QUESTION: Is the German economy competitive in the wind energy sector in the long term?
BARTH:International competition has increased significantly in recent years. Chinese companies in particular are offering wind turbines with investment costs per megawatt that are in some cases significantly lower than those of European manufacturers. However, local wind turbines are extremely reliable, which in turn has a favourable effect on operating costs. In view of the restructuring of the entire energy system and the associated demands on wind energy, the German economy will also be competitive in the wind energy sector in the long term.
QUESTION: What are the next steps for the research network?
BARTH: In addition to working on the first joint research projects, DLR, ForWind and IWES are currently working intensively on expanding the existing research infrastructure to include research wind turbines and wind farms. In this way, we want to further improve the possibilities for technology development.