Final report

Dates and location

7 September — 9 September 2016, The Netherlands

Chairperson

Carlos Simao Ferreira

Co-chairperson

Uwe Schmidt Paulsen

Conference fees

Early Registration Fee: 350.00 €
Late Registration Fee: 400.00 €

What other funding was obtained?

The only other funding was the conference fees paid by the participants.

What were the participants offered?

Services offered at the Colloquium included tours of the Delft Aerospace wind tunnels, a drink mixer, catering for breakfast, lunch and breaks. A full conference dinner was also provided in the center of Delft. There was also a book of abstracts and a custom "Delft blue" plaque commemorating the colloquium was provided for the conference.

Applicants (members)

David Greenblatt
Helge Aagaard Madsen
Frederik Thönnißen

Applicants (non members)

Ilmas Bayati
Laurent Beaudet
Philippe Chatelain
Zhengshun Cheng
Edoardo Cicirello
Jean-Baptiste Curien
Tim De Troyer
Matthieu Duponcheel
Brian Feeny
Ingrid Feyling
Clémence Gellée
Jean-Christophe Gilloteaux
Christopher Golightly
Anders Goude
D. Todd Griffith
Doma Hilewit
Alexandre Immas
Samuel Kanner
Takuji Kasuya
Joanna Kluczewska-Bordier
Vincent Leroy
Kelly Marsh
Benoit Paillard
Uwe Schmidt Paulsen
Ewen Ritchie
Björn Roscher
Morgan Rossander
Mark Runacres
Guillaume Venet
Axelle Vire
Stefania Zanforlin

Scientific report

After thirty years of successful implementation of Onshore Wind Farms based on Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) technology, the wind energy industry faces new challenges in developing offshore wind farms. Although most of the development of wind energy is expected to be in offshore wind energy, our current level of wind turbine technology, based on the HAWT concept, does not yet economically meet the requirements, driving the cost of offshore wind energy 70%-85% larger than onshore wind energy. For floating offshore wind energy, the challenge is even larger. The Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) is a promising solution for floating offshore wind energy due to its scalability, robustness, reliability, simplicity of installation, low center of mass and insensitivity to yaw.

However, the VAWT is both a scientific and an engineering challenge. Its aerodynamics are defined by a 3D unsteady asymmetric actuator volume, where blade-vortex interaction and dynamic stall are predominant. Currently, we lack validated models at airfoil, blade, rotor, and wake scale. The lack of prototypes and test beds at real scale means that the few existing aero-elastic models are yet to be validated. Due to its 3D shape and asymmetric flow field, the design space is still mostly unexplored. This challenge in knowledge is further increased by the application of a VAWT to a floating concept, where floater design and dynamics, including wave loading and mooring are key.

There is now an emerging community of researchers and industrial developers for floating VAWT, new developments in industrial prototypes, several national and EU funded projects on offshore VAWTs, and an increasing number of publications every year. These developments warranted a meeting of experts to identify key challenges and developments in design, models and scientific research. The colloquium brought together this community for the first time under a dedicated event to VAWT technology, science and research.

The main topics discussed were: Aerodynamics and aeroacoustics, including wake modeling and analysis; Structural design and aero-elasticity; Drivetrains and major components; Offshore support structures; Novel architectures and configurations; System level design studies and optimization; Cost analysis and making a business case for VAWTs; Industry activities and technology demonstrations.

Participants traveled from all over Europe, Asia, and the Americas to participate in the colloquium. The event was unanimously considered a large success and agreements were made to reconvene in two years time to update research and highlight conclusions of current research and development activities.

The colloquium was organized by D. Todd Griffith (Sandia National Laboratories), Michael Borg (Technical University of Denmark), and Bruce LeBlanc (Delft University of Technology).

Number of participants from each country

Country	Participants
France	8
Belgium	5
Italy	3
Norway	3
Denmark	3
United States	2
Sweden	2
Abkhazia	2
Germany	2
Israel	1
Japan	1
United Kingdom	1
Netherlands	1
Total	34