Innovative technologies to reduce the cost of wind energy generation showcased at EU Sustainable Energy Week 2016

Technologies that increase the durability, performance and availability of both onshore and offshore wind turbines were presented during the 11th Edition of the EU Sustainable Energy Week, taking place between 13 and 27 June 2016 in Brussels.

The highlight of the week was the mini-conference on “Reducing the Cost of Wind Energy Generation”, held on the 14 June as part of the energy days. The event, organised by the Windtrust project, brought together policy makers, regional representatives, researchers and industries from across Europe and beyond.

Speakers from WindEurope, CENER, DTU (Technical University of Denmark), LM Wind Power and University of Strathclyde presented the main challenges facing the wind energy industry, and how the solutions developed by the project could potentially reduce the cost of energy generation by 22%.

The conference focused on 4 key technologies:

• smarter blades, designed to better handle extreme loads;
• innovative blades coating that enables the turbine to perform better and longer;
• technologies to make wind turbines quieter, hence allowing for more land surface available to wind farms;
• and a smarter wind turbine controller, able to optimise the energy output of the turbines by reducing downtime.

At the same time, Windtrust is participating in the Visualizing Energy photo exhibition, taking place on the Esplanade of the European Parliament and in front of the main European Commission building in Brussels. As the main media event of the European Sustainable Energy Week, the Visualizing Energy exhibition and public information campaign aims at highlighting the human dimension of the energy transition by showing workers in action on renewable energy projects.

Alongside this, an eight-page feature in REVOLVE magazine presenting Windtrust’s project results has been published on 14 June, including a detailed description of the innovative solutions developed in the project.

Source: http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/133876_en.html?isPermaLink=true?WT.mc_i...