I just attended the North American Wind Energy Academy conference 2019 at UMass in Amherst, MA, and I was amazed at the amount - and detail - of exciting wind energy research going on in the US. At the European conferences that I usually attend (WindEurope, TORQUE, WESC), there are usually some North Americans (mainly from NREL), but not many. This appears to be because many PhD students do not receive funding to attend conferences outside of the US.

Grand Challenges in the science of wind energy

The contents of the conference were all linked to the main topics in the new Science article, “Grand challenges in the science of wind energy“:

First grand challenge: Improved understanding of atmospheric and wind power plant flow physics.
Second grand challenge: Aerodynamics, structural dynamics, and offshore wind hydrodynamics of enlarged wind turbines.
Third grand challenge: Systems science for integration of wind power plants into the future electricity grid.

I think we should make more of an effort to align research in Europe with these Grand Challenges, and try to actively collaborate with US research institutes and universities.

AWAKEN - opportunity for joint Swiss proposal

Also, I found out about the planned large measurement project AWAKEN - The Americon Wake Experiment. I would like to start a Swiss initiative and submit a proposal to work together on this project. If you are interested in writing a joint proposal with other Swiss insitutes regarding atmospheric and wake simulations and measurements, please get in touch! This is a unique experiment that we should really get involved in.

Comparison metrics simulation challenge launched

Finally, I had the opportunity to present our new Comparison Metrics Simulation Challenge at the IEA Wind Task 31 meeting. The pre-study has now been launched and you are invited to submit Bolund Hill Blind Test results as described here.