27 December 2011

"GW Wakes (GigaWatt Wakes)" is the title of a new research project on offshore wind energy at the University of Oldenburg, which is being funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) with over 3.8 million euros over the next three years.

The aim is to research wind currents and wakes in very large offshore wind farms with a hundred or more turbines in order to "harvest" wind energy at sea as efficiently and predictably as possible. "After receiving the latest computer technology for complex flow simulations in wind energy a year ago, the University of Oldenburg is now pushing ahead with research in the offshore sector, the most innovative area of wind energy. This means that Oldenburg's energy research is being consistently expanded," emphasises University President Prof. Dr Babette Simon. The project involves four Oldenburg physics working groups that are members of ForWind, the centre for wind energy research at the universities of Oldenburg, Bremen and Hanover, as well as the Fraunhofer project group "Computational Fluid and System Dynamics" in Oldenburg and BARD Engineering GmbH, Emden.

"The further expansion of wind energy use in Germany and Europe requires very large offshore wind farms with a total capacity of several gigawatts," says project leader and wind energy expert Prof Dr Martin Kühn. This poses new challenges, as current scientific studies indicate that large offshore wind farms may influence each other. "GW Wakes" addresses this problem and helps to further improve the economic efficiency of wind turbines and offshore wind farms as well as the predictability of wind power production. With funding from the BMU, the project is acquiring a globally unique laser-optical remote sensing device. With this so-called MultiLIDAR, the scientists measure wind flow, turbulence and shadowing of wind turbines and analyse the effect of the wake on wind farms in the surrounding area. "We work with three spatially distributed laser devices that use synchronised light pulses to investigate the currents and turbulence within a radius of up to eight kilometres," says Kühn, explaining the new research possibilities. Similar to a modern ultrasound examination of the blood flow in the heart, it is possible to see where critical vortices and turbulence form in the wind farms on coloured, moving images.

The research project is made possible by the co-operation with BARD Engineering GmbH, which is currently planning six offshore wind farms in the German Bight. BARD is supporting the Oldenburg scientists with extensive operating data and access to the "BARD Offshore 1" offshore wind farm located 100 kilometres northwest of Borkum. The 400 megawatt wind farm is scheduled for completion at the end of 2013. 80 wind turbines covering an area of 52 square kilometres will then supply more than 400,000 multi-person households with electricity from a renewable energy source. The research is the first to provide data on shading losses in an offshore wind farm of a representative size. "For BARD Engineering and the entire BARD Group, the content and results of the research project are essential building blocks for the planning and optimisation of large offshore wind farms and for the design of the next generation of future wind turbines. That is why it is important for us to actively support this project," explains Dr Daniel Brickwell, Head of Sales at BARD Holding GmbH.