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Content archived on 2024-06-18

Simulation, Optimization and Control of High-Altitude<br/>Wind Power Generators

Objective

A new class of large scale wind power generators shall be investigated via
mathematical modelling, computer simulation and multidisciplinary optimization methods. The underlying
technical idea is to use fast flying tethered airfoils that fly in altitudes of several hundred
meters above the ground. They will perform specially controlled loops accompanied by line length
and line tension variations, that are used to drive a generator on the ground.
Being a high risk / high gain technology, the applicant believes that the main focus in the first development
years should not be on building large and expensive experimental setups (as some courageous
experimentalists currently do in Europe and the US), but on mathematical modelling, computer
simulation and optimization studies, accompanied by only small scale experiments for model
and control system validation. This will help finding optimal system designs before expensive and
potentially dangerous large scale systems are built. The research requires an interdisciplinary collaboration
of scientists from mathematical, mechanical, aerospace, and control engineering, as well
as from the computational sciences. At the end of the project, a small scale, automatically flying prototype shall be realized, accompanied
by validated and scalable mathematical models and a toolbox of efficient computational methods
for simulation and multidisciplinary optimization of high altitude wind power systems. If successful,
the project will help to establish this new type of wind power generator that might provide electricity
more cheaply than fossil fuels and is deployable at considerably more sites than conventional windmills.

Call for proposal

ERC-2010-StG_20091028
See other projects for this call

Host institution

ALBERT-LUDWIGS-UNIVERSITAET FREIBURG
EU contribution
€ 694 057,74
Address
FAHNENBERGPLATZ
79098 Freiburg
Germany

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Region
Baden-Württemberg Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau, Stadtkreis
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Principal investigator
Moritz Mathias Diehl (Prof.)
Administrative Contact
Moritz Diehl (Prof.)
Links
Total cost
No data

Beneficiaries (2)