Research Projects

UpWind is a 5-year project that started on 1st March 2006. The aim of the project is to develop and verify substantially improved models of the principle wind turbine components, which the industry needs for the design and manufacture of wind turbines for future very large-scale applications, e.g. offshore wind farms of several hundred MW. The wind turbines needed will be very large (>8-10 MW and rotor diameter > 120 m). Present design methods and the available components and materials do not allow such up-scaling. In order to achieve the necessary up-scaling before 2020, full understanding of external design conditions, innovative materials with a sufficient strength to mass ratio, and advanced control and measuring systems are essential.

Fraunhofer IEE (formerly ISET) is participating in the following UpWind Work Packages (WPs) with the described tasks:

WP1A3 Training:

The specific objective of this WP is the development of a number of modules for international courses in the field of Wind Power and the necessary supporting education/ training material. This in order to provide a suitable vehicle for the training of researchers, students, and industrial engineers (in particular for SMEs), as well of energy planners, consultants and project developers on the state-of-the-art knowledge and expertise produced in a variety of wind energy related topics (including the results/outputs of the IP work-packages).
Contact: Michael Durstewitz

WP1B2 Transmission and Conversion:

Economic viability of offshore windturbines clearly scales with power and efficiency of generators and power conversion systems. The work package aims at modeling a medium voltage wind power conversion system with respect to optimal efficiency, cost, size and reliabilty. Within WP1B2c (Power electronics) Fraunhofer IEE is involved into benchmarking devices and Multilevel converter systems for next generation offshore windturbines. Fraunhofer IEE also investigates protection and grid connection (fault ride-through capabilities).
Contact: Antonio Notholt-Vergara

WP5 Control Systems:

This work package deals with load reducing pitch control strategies and control related grid integration issues of WEC. For very large WEC conventional control design strategies may not longer apply due to the shift in structural mode frequencies with respect to control system bandwidth. Furthermore considerable load reduction for all parts of the structure may be achieved by integrating load reduction objectives into the control design process. The work package will look after control strategies that can be applied to state-of-the-art turbines as well as completely new control system structures with additional sensors and actuators. Fraunhofer IEE will focus on load estimators that retrieve loading information for control purposes from existing sensor inputs and on Hardware-in-the-Loop testing of new pitch control strategies.
Contact: Peter Loepelmann

WP7 Condition Monitoring:

Main objective of this WP and its subtasks is to support the integration of new condition monitoring, fault prediction and operation & maintenance approaches into the next generation of wind turbines for offshore wind farms. Main aspects for this are the cost effectiveness and the improved availability of offshore wind turbines and their components. Fraunhofer IEE's tasks are the WP leadership, the definition of a new generation Condition Monitoring Systems (CMS) including sensor technology and fault prediction algorithms and the identification and description of suitable statistic data bases available according to failure rates, MTBF and resulting downtimes of WT components. Basic scientific and technical results will be made available in international publications and conferences as well as in the form of materials for the educational part of the project. Technical knowledge will be communicated to relevant international standardisation work groups.
Contact: Jochen Giebhardt

WP9 Electrical Grid:

The aim of this work package is to investigate the reliability of wind farms in power systems and solutions that can improve this reliability. Operational as well as statistical aspects of wind farm reliability will be investigated. Investigating grid code requirements, extreme wind conditions and specific wind farm control options to cope with these requirements will cover the operational aspects. Within this, Fraunhofer IEE is task leader for task 9.2: 'Power system requirements for high wind penetration', where the grid code requirements of the TSO's for high wind penetration will be compared to the capabilities of wind turbines. New design criteria for future WEC are developed to meet expected future grid code requirements. Additionally, reliable power systems with constraints on wind generation and the special conditions for small island grids will be investigated.
Contact: Dr. Bernhard Lange