Posters

Abstract

16 years of field data from the first German wind farm alpha ventus have been collected and are available now for researchers across the globe. Alpha ventus was built in 2009 as a demonstration wind farm to support the development of offshore wind power. Twelve 5MW wind turbines were erected under genuine offshore conditions. Alpha ventus’ mission was to gather fundamental experience with a view to the commercial use of offshore wind power in Germany. The research initiative „Research at alpha ventus” (RAVE), with support by the Federal Ministry for Economic affairs and Energy, brings together research, development and demonstration (R, D&D) activities of turbine manufacturers and research institutions in a coordinated effort.  Over the last 16 years, a comprehensive scientific measurement program was maintained: 4 of the 12 turbines of alpha ventus are equipped with extensive measurement systems. These include measurements at the two different turbine types (Adwen 5000M und Senvion 5M) and foundation types (tripod and jacket). Electrical measurements are performed at both the offshore and onshore substations. Directly next to the wind farm there is the 100m high meteorological measurement mast FINO 1, accompanied by oceanographic measurements at the mast and in the wind farm. At times, there were more than 1200 measurement channels in operation and more than 30TB measurement data were collected up to now. In addition to these continuous measurements, a variety of measurement campaign data are available in the database from the different research projects which have been working on alpha ventus since 2009. Alpha ventus will be decommissioned within the next years as the end of it’s design life is approaching. This final phase of the life of alpha ventus opens new possibilities for R, D&D and interested researchers are encouraged to get in contact with the RAVE coordination.