Collaborative wind turbines for the most sustainable future | TU Delft

Extracting as much energy as cost-effectively as possible from each individual wind turbine epitomised the short-term approach of the past. But what we need for a climate-neutral and energy-independent Europe is a shift towards sustainable wind energy in the long term, taking into account all costs and aspects - including societal and environmental ones. This is what the wind farm control room of the future is all about. Wind power is poised to become Europe's largest source of renewable energy, including a ten-fold increase in wind power capacity in the North Sea. In several previous research projects, professor Jan-Willem van Wingerden, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime Engineering and Materials Engineering (3mE), along with his team and partners, devised ways of optimising the energy yield of entire wind farms using flow control. 'Deliberately altering or distorting the wake of specific wind turbines, for instance, can enable subsequent turbines to produce more energy or, alternatively, undergo less stressed and therefore show less wear and tear. In a large wind farm, this flow control provides, almost out of nothing, the equivalent of an additional wind turbine, capable of powering tens of thousands of homes.' The logical progression for wind turbines that collectively reach their targets is to also hold those targets to a critical light.