From projects supporting R&D for wind energy, to projects investigating offshore wind energy, EWEA takes part in a number of EU-funded assignments all contributing to the future development of wind energy. Here, we outline our latest on-going projects:

TP Wind – the European Technology Platform for Wind Energy – is at the cutting edge of wind energy technology. The platform works on constantly identifying new opportunities for innovation including bigger, more efficient turbines and developing ones that can operate in more extreme environments such as offshore, or in the world’s cooler climes.

TP Wind, funded by the European Commission’s FP6 research programme, is in fact currently looking for new members to join. So if you’re interested in contributing to the wind energy technology of the future, click here and note that the deadline is 25 September.

Also focussing on wind energy R&D is Upwind. Supported by the Commission’s FP6 research programme, this is Europe’s largest R&D wind energy project which aims to improve and develop wind turbine components for use in very large-scale wind farms on the scale of several hundred megawatts.

Wind Barriers, supported by Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE)is another project EWEA is involved in. It has analysed the administrative, planning permission and grid access barriers wind farm developers face before they can get their wind farm installed, operating and connected to the electricity grid.

Switching attention to offshore wind energy, EWEA is involved in three projects aimed at removing the obstacles to bringing more offshore wind energy online. Seaenergy 2020 , IEE-funded, is looking at Maritime Spatial Planning, while Offshore Grid, also IEE-funded, is analysing offshore grid infrastructure and the power market. A third project – Orecca, which is funded by FP7 – aims to create a knowledge sharing platform and a vision for the development of an offshore renewable energy sector.

Set to take a more general look at electricity grids, Twenties is an FP7 project that will explore how to operate grid systems once large amounts of wind energy and other renewables are fully integrated.

To find out more on our past and present projects, click here.