UpWind
Running time: March 2006 – February 2011
UpWind is the largest European R&D wind energy project ever. It is a 5-year (2006-2011) project that aims at developing and verifying substantially improved models of the principal wind turbine components, which the industry needs for the design and manufacture of wind turbine for very large-scale future applications, e.g. offshore wind farms of several hundred MW. The wind turbines needed will be very large (>8-10 MW) and the rotor diameter will be over 120m. 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.
In order to achieve this up-scaling in the most efficient way, the following critical areas are being addressed in this Integrated Project:
- metrology
- transmission and conversion
- smart rotor blades and rotor control
- aerodynamics and aeroelastics
- foundations and support structures
- control systems
- remote sensing
Project partners:
The project includes 40 partners from the manufacturing industries, service providers, universities, R&D establishments and professional organisations who are working on 15 integration and research work packages.
The 40 partners involved in the project are the following:
- Technical University of Denmark (Risø National Laboratory), Denmark, Project Coordinator
- Technical University of Denmark (Risø National Laboratory), Denmark
- Aalborg University, Denmark
- Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, The Netherlands
- Stichting Kenniscentrum Windturbine Materialen en Constructies, The Netherlands
- Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
- Centre for Renewable Energy Sources, Greece
- National Technical University of Athens, Greece
- University of Patras, Greece
- Institut für Solare Energieversorgungstechnik Verein an der Universität Kassel, Germany
- Universität Stuttgart, Germany
- Elsam Engineering A/S, Denmark
- GE Wind Energy GmbH, Germany
- Gamesa Innovation and Technology, Spain
- Fiberblade Eólica S.A., Spain
- Garrad Hassan and Partners Ltd., United Kingdom
- Werkzeugmaschinenlabor, Aachen University, Germany
- LM Glasfiber A.S., Denmark
- Germanischer Lloyd WindEnergie GmbH, Germany
- Ramboll Danmark A.S., Denmark
- Fundación Robotiker, Spain
- VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finland
- SAMTECH S.A., Belgium
- Shell Windenergy BV, The Netherlands
- Repower Systems AG, Germany
- Det Norske Veritas, Danmark A/S, Denmark
- Lohmann und Stolterfoht GmbH, Germany
- University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (link to )
- Instytut Podstawowych Problemow Techniki PAN, Poland
- Institute of Thermomechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic
- Lulea University of Technology, Sweden
- Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils, United Kingdom
- Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium
- QinetiQ Ltd., United Kingdom
- Vestas Asia Pacific A/S, Denmark
- Smart Fibres Ltd., United Kingdom
- University of Salford, United Kingdom
- European Wind Energy Association, Belgium
- Ecotècnia S.C.C.L., Spain
- Fundación CENER - CIEMAT, Spain
UpWind website:
More information on UpWind as well as on the outputs of the project is available on the project website www.upwind.eu.
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