Smart Rotors for Cost Efficient Wind Turbines

By the end of 2015, wind turbine power plants with a total output of 430 GW were installed worldwide, more than 43 GW in Germany accounting for roughly 14% of its national gross electricity generation. Essential advantages of wind energy are low electricity generation costs, global applicability and good controllability (especially concerning system services). One of the most important objectives of research and development is further cost reduction. Further developments in plant engineering are necessary for this. Weight reduction and a longer life, achieved through new construction methods and the use of new materials, and taking into account the system parameters regarding elasticity and structural dynamics, are essential drivers in cost reduction. This contribution explores the research into innovative rotor blade technologies within the scope of current research projects in the framework of the above topics. New methods covering areas from the design process to automated production, the behavior of new components in the overall wind turbine system and the impact on acceptance criteria (such as noise) must be verified and validated before they can be used in industrial operation. For this, the construction of a research platform (DFWind), funded by the German federal ministry BMWi and the state of Lower Saxony, is going to provide an infrastructure in the coming years. This infrastructure shall allow the testing and qualification of new technologies and methods as well as the phenomenological investigation of two wind turbines –consecutively placed in the main wind direction – and their surroundings.