MS#01.9 Wind energy optimization for challenging sites and climatic conditions with special focus on blade erosion

B. MENDEZ LOPEZ¹, H. KASSEM², . HANNESDOTTIR³, V. RINTA-HIIRO⁴, C. HASAGER³, K. DYER⁵
¹ CENER|² Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems - IWES |³ DTU Wind and Energy Systems|⁴ VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland|⁵ Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult

Wind resource, metocean and extreme conditions

To meet the European decarbonization commitments the installed wind power by 2050 should reach 1000GW from both onshore and offshore technologies. To achieve this objective wind turbine manufacturers and wind farm developers will have to use larger wind turbines installed at challenging sites and novel geographical regions. In addition, the turbines and wind farms will need to operate at more challenging climatic conditions.

The themes of this mini symposia will include the study of phenomena such as precipitation and sand with high fidelity equipment as well as the improvement of precipitation modelling for mesoscale and wake studies. In addition, precipitation causes blade erosion that is one of the operation and maintenance challenges of wind energy. These multidisciplinary symposia will include also the study of blade erosion mitigation techniques and the assessment of energy losses due to blade erosion. Expected contributions are those study the effect of precipitation, sand or other special weather conditions on the entire wind energy value chain (effect on wakes, component damage models, tools adapted to these conditions or blade erosion for example).