Advanced study of the atmospheric flow Integrating REal climate conditions to enhance wind farm and wind turbine power production and increase components durability

Project Information

AIRE

Grant agreement ID: 101083716

DOI

10.3030/101083716

EC signature date 24 October 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 5 424 916,43

EU contribution

€ 5 424 916,00

Coordinated by

FUNDACION CENER
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AIRE (Advanced study of the atmospheric flow Integrating REal climate conditions to enhance wind farm and wind turbine power production and increase components durability)

Reporting period: 2024-05-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

AIRE’s main objective is to understand the atmospheric flow in low, medium and high altitudes in the whole operation range from mesoscale level to wind turbine, wind farm and blade levels, correlating wind to other climatic events and to create a toolbox to satisfy the industrial needs to reduce economic uncertainties, LCOE and increase durability.

Context
To meet the European decarbonization commitments the installed wind power by 2050 should reach 1000GW from both onshore and offshore technologies. To achieve this objective wind turbine manufacturers and wind farm developers will have to use larger wind turbines installed at challenging sites and novel geographical regions. In addition, the turbines and wind farms will need to operate at more challenging climatic conditions.
The AIRE project contributes to achieve this objective by exploring the wind resource at different altitudes and site typologies (onshore-offshore-flat-complex terrain) and enlarge the study including precipitation and sand particles present in the air. With this information the existing models and tools will be improved, and new ones will be developed.

Overall objectives
The overall objectives of the project are:
Open-access knowledge hub of experimental data: data are being collected in 7 sites in the AIRE project. The AIRE sites cover different altitudes, terrain complexities and wind turbine characteristics. Commercial and experimental wind farms are studied. Regarding the climatic conditions, the AIRE sites encompass sites with high precipitation rates and with high levels of particles present in the air.
Develop numerical models. The AIRE project evaluates how wind flows alter power production through 5 complex models for mesoscale meteorology, wake development on wind farms, blade damage, airfoil performance and precipitation impingement.
Tools to be rapidly absorbed by the industrial sector. The project develops a set of tools that can be useful for the industry: an erosion risk atlas, wind farm operation and control, a wind turbine annual production and loads prediction, and an erosion safe mode operation. The tools development is guided by the industrial partners of AIRE consortium.
Toolbox application to case studies. The climate conditions impact on wind energy is explored in 5 sites, where several tests are performed to assess the applicability of AIRE tools to optimize performance and reduce operation and maintenance costs.
New blade designs Design of solutions to produce more efficient and durable wind turbine blades that are optimal for operation in real-world atmospheric conditions. Resistant materials to extreme weather conditions will be evaluated to improve wind turbine performance and reducing costs due to unforeseen reparations.

Project Pathway to impact
AIRE project will improve the understanding of atmospheric flow physics, particularly regarding wind power production forecasting and the design of wind energy technology components. The project will also support improved wind farm design, location choice, distribution and operation bridging the gap between small-scale controlled experiments and full-scale deployment. In addition, the project will contribute to enhance system reliability and power production by improving and designing models that account for wind, precipitation and sand, and site location and altitude. The main impacts are: 1. Decrease economic uncertainties related to farm design and power production, as well as wind technology components design and durability. 2. Lead development of numerical models capable of accurately forecasting high wind flow and power production. 3. Improve wakes modelling and the integration of models with real condition wind farm data. 4. Use open access of Big Data storage and usage for the testing and performance tracking of the numeric models

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

- The experimental campaigns running or finished in seven of the AIRE sites. The measurement campaigns include wind measurement with lidars, precipitation measurements with Micro Rain Radars, Disdrometers and pluviometers and particles present in the air with meteorological stations. Blade status and wind turbine operational data have also been recorded. The experimental campaign in the offshore wind farm is also on-going.
- Data recorded are being post-processed to be shared in a structured fair way profitable for research purposes. Meatada are being defined. All the information is being uploaded in a repository that can be accessed by all the AIRE project partners. In addition, a collaborative data hub created by AIRE, Meridional and FLOW projects has been published during the period.
- Models development has finished successfully in the period. These models are mesoscale and wake models that include precipitation, blade damage models, airfoil performance model to account for rough or eroded blades and impingement models. The outcome of these models will be used to design tools that will contribute to optimizing wind turbine and wind farm designs. One part of the damage model developed in Task 3.2 is the only one that needs to be finished.
- The project tools have been developed and the first version of them has been shared with the industrial partners for their evaluation.
- Airfoils resistant to blade erosion have been designed during the period.
- Dissemination and communication activities continued: the researchers made publications and attended to conferences to present the project results.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The most interesting project results and the potential use of them are summarized next:

- Characterization of precipitation evolution with altitude up to 3km. The study of the type of precipitation, the particle size and the fall velocities is crucial for improving wind turbine operation in areas with high precipitation rates. This is used to understand precipitation types for the different sites, calibrate traditional meteorological equipment and study the impingement process of precipitation on the blades. The dependencies between wind and precipitation rate and particle size are have been analysed during this period.
- The influence of sand on the wind profile has been characterized and the impact on wind turbine power production evaluated. The beyond state-of-the-art impact of these activities is the optimization of wind turbines design and control for wind farms in or close to desertic areas.
- Isolate the effect of precipitation on wind turbine wake development. During the period this phenomenal has been analysed and it will need further research to identify the effect of precipitation on wake development to further optimize wind farm design and control.
- A database of airfoil performance for roughness and eroded conditions has been created. With this accurate database, wind turbine performance can be predicted and optimized for sites operating under extreme weather conditions.
- Precipitation impingement on rotating wind turbines has been studied using high fidelity techniques. The main result achieved is the identification of the impact areas and impact forces to optimize the airfoil design.
- Airfoils design: two airfoils have been designed by three of the partners (DTU, IWES, CENER) with the objective of reducing the sensitivity to roughness and erosion.