Research projects Wind Energy

Some of the research projects that Kjeller has been involved in so far.

 

Wind energy in icing climates

In all wind power plants located in cold climates, ice can form on the wind turbines during periods of low temperature and fog or rain. This ice can fall or be thrown from the wind turbine. The ice can then cause damage to users of the wind farm areas; hikers, hunters, service personnel, animals, cars and buildings etc. The probability of  being hit by ice throws is very low, but if that happens, the extent of the injury can be severe.

The aim of the project is that anyone who wants to use the wind farm areas shall have the best possible information about the icing conditions in the area so that they can avoid exposing themselves to unnecessary danger.

The project combines the experience Norconsult’s department Kjeller Vindteknikk has on icing on wind turbines and risk analyses with the Norwegian Meteorological Institute’s expertise in weather forecasts and communication of risk. The results of the project will be used by operators and builders of wind power plants, who also will communicate the information to users of the wind farm areas.

An improved methodology for calculating risk associated with ice will reduce the uncertainty in the results. This will be an advantage in a socio-economic perspective, as the necessity to perform measures based on a “precautionary principle” will decrease, and the measures will be taken where they are necessary. A good communication of the knowledge and documentation of ice throw are risk-reducing and protective measures that will also increase the safety and sense of security both in employees and others who use the area where the risk of ice throw occurs.

The project started in 2020, and will continue till the end of 2022.

 

NoIce4Wind

Blade icing is a major issue for wind farms in cold climate areas, decreasing energy production and potentially reducing wind turbine generators (WTG) lifetime by increased vibrations and fatigue loads. Icing also leads to an increased HSE risk for the service personnel and visitors to the wind farm from ice being thrown from the turbine blades.

One of the underlying ideas of the project is to study solutions for blade heating system and to participate in the development of new innovative solutions to reduce the production losses and HSE risks caused by iced blades. In this project, a system to incorporate icing forecasts has been developed. The icing forecasts are provided as a product, which has the potential to improve on the safety of the personnel working in the cold climate wind farms.

Through many years, IceLoss has been one of the most important products provided by Kjeller Vindteknikk and given the company a leading position in the market within  icing of wind turbines in Norway and abroad. This project has contributed by increasing the knowledge on blade heating systems and by developing a module for calculating icing losses for turbines with blade heating installed. In addition, our product IceRisk has been developed from a pilot tool to a commercial risk assessment product. IceRisk models the icing build up on the turbines and calculate how far the turbines will throw this ice. Based on this, risk zones are calculated which can be evaluated toward suggested risk acceptance criteria.

The project has supported our work in IEA wind task 19 (Wind Energy in Cold Climates) where we have contributed to the development of the international recommendation for handling the risk of ice fall and ice throw from wind turbines.  We have also collaborated with the national authorities (NVE) in the development of guidelines to be used for wind farms in Norway.

The project was finalized in 2020.

 

IceLoss2.0

For a wind farm operating in cold climate, production losses due to ice on the blades is typically the second largest loss item, following wake losses. In that context, it is important to have an accurate estimate of the expected loss related to icing at an early stage in the planning of a wind farm. The main purpose of the IceLoss 2.0 project was to develop a major upgrade of the existing IceLoss 1.0 model.

With the use of SCADA data from 24 operational wind farms the IceLoss 2.0 model has been validated. The validation shows a considerable improvement in the accuracy of the IceLoss 2.0 model compared to the previous version. The mean absolute error is reduced by half, which implies that the IceLoss 2.0 model will be a tool that brings increased value to wind power stakeholders.

Several new features have been included in the IceLoss 2.0 model to better describe different icing conditions within, and also between wind farms. A blade cylinder model has been developed that takes turbine specific RPM curves into account and calculate icing at different points of the rotor swept area. The ice growth of the blade cylinder model has been benchmarked with CFD simulations.

The project was finalized in 2020.

 

LoadMonitor

In collaboration with Stena Renewable and other stakeholders, Kjeller Vindteknikk investigated how wind influences vibrations in the nacelle of wind turbines. Three-dimensional real time measurements of upstream wind and high resolution vibration measurements from the wind turbine formed the basis for analyzing the correlation between the two.

The goal of the project was to reveal deviation in power production and identify unusual wind conditions and component failure through high-quality wind and vibration measurements.

The project had a duration of two years from 2015 and was finaced by Stena Renewable, Energimyndigheten and Elforsk.

 

NowWind

In partnership with several industry operators, Kjeller Vindteknikk used the Wind Farm Simulator to give short-term prognoses for the energy production of wind power plants, turbine loads and turbine lifetimes.

The project was financed by the Research Council of Norway and the project partners, and ran for three years starting from summer 2016. 

 

Renewable energy in the agriculture sector

In corporation with the Institute for Energy Technology Kjeller Vindteknikk worked on quantifying the potential for exploiting sun and wind for renewable energy production at Norwegian farms. Based on the resource potential a plan is developed on how Norwegian farms can exploit and capitalize on these renewable resources.

As part of the project Kjeller Vindteknikk created a detailed wind map of the municipality Aurskog-Høland.

The project was financed by the Norwegian Agriculture Agency. 

 

Assessment and optimization of the energy production of operational wind farms – ProdOptimize

Kjeller Vindteknikk carried out a ProdOptimize research project within the Vindforsk IV Program conducted by the Swedish Energy Research Centre (Energiforsk) during the period 2014-2016.

The research project focused on post-construction energy assessment, performance analysis and optimization of wind farm operation with quantification of icing losses.

 

Wind Farm Simulator

WFS is a program which simulates production and behavior of all individual turbines in a wind farm every hour. It uses time series for area specific climate conditions such as wind, icing, air density, temperature and stability as input. This is used for historic analysis, forecasting and planning purposes. 

WFS was developed between 2012 and 2014 with financing by the Norwegian Research Council and Statkraft Development AS.

 

ICEWIND

The ICEWIND project involves several work packages from research institutions, developers and turbine manufacturers. Kjeller Vindteknikk’s main responsibilities were developments in the areas of icing, wind farm wake calculations and short-term energy forecasts.

ICEWIND operated from September 2010 to August 2014 and was financed by Norden – Top-level Research Initiative, a major Nordic venture for climate, energy and the environment. 

 

INTREPED

INTREPED is Norwegian R&D project financed by the Norwegain Research Council. Collaborating partners are NHH, SINTEF and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. Kjeller VIndteknikks role was to examine and deliver time-series of wind energy production data and short-term wind energy forecasts for analysis of the renewable energy markets in Norway and Scandinavia.

 

OWA

R&D project financed by the Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) program as part of the Carbon Trust mission. In collaboration with Uni Research, Kjeller Vindteknikk analysed the wake interactions between large offshore wind farms, as a part of the offshore wind farm development strategies of OWA. The project duration was from January 2013 to June 2014.

 

Long-term correction of wind measurements. State-of-the-art, guidelines and future work.

This work was carried out by Kjeller Vindteknikk and co-funded partially by the Swedish wind energy research programme “Vindforsk – III”, and partially by Kjeller Vindteknikk. The main purposes of the study were to investigate relevant issues concerning the long-term correction of wind measurements, and to present the state-of-the-art knowledge in the field. Issues such as the use of different long-term reference datasets, and different long term correction methods were investigated, as well as the influence of the duration of the measured data and of the reference period in the uncertainty of the long-term wind, were investigated. The results are presented in the report Liléo et al. (2013).

  

NORSEWInD

The NORSEWInD project was developed in 2009-2012 funded by the European Comission FP7 programme, and carried out by a consortium of 21 partners throughout Europe. The main aim of the project was to provide an offshore wind atlas of the North, Irish and Baltic Seas. Kjeller Vindteknikk focused on developing and validating methods for generating wind atlases. Kjeller Vindteknikk was also responsible for the delivery of the wind atlases for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The work resulted in several publications.

 

Wind Resource Mapping in Complex Terrain

The project was carried out during the period 2006-2008 funded by the Norwegian Research Council and Statoil. Kjeller Vindteknikk carried out measurements at a very complex Norwegian site using traditional measuring equipment, remote sensing (SoDAR) and high frequency turbulence measurements. The measurements were combined with high resolution microscale and mesoscale modelling in wind and turbulence analyses.