Many years of expansion in wind power across Europe have given us a world-leading industry. We've benefited from strong markets in most countries at some point the last 20 years. But in the last few years, we've seen stagnation in many markets, and growth concentrated in just a few. In 2015, Germany accounted for over half of all new installations. A number of the markets that have historically been engines of growth, are currently struggling with abrupt regulatory changes.

This session will look at the future of wind energy in Europe. Michael Liebreich, Chairman and Founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, will start the session with an overview of the prospects and challenges for the sector in Europe. A discussion on the outlook of onshore and offshore wind power follows involving industry leaders and European policymakers.

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Energy markets are changing. In Europe, wind power spearheads the energy transition today and that is set to continue if innovation stays on track. As the technology matures and wind power covers a growing share of the electricity mix, the key to competitive edge increasingly lies in providing system solutions that are both cost-effective and contribute to a secure and well-functioning power system.

A number of leading European wind energy manufacturers and suppliers are already developing these solutions. But they are facing ever stiffer global competition.

In this session, industry leaders will outline their vision for the wind power industry, comment on current technology trends and present their view on how to maintain competitive edge in a time of transition.

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Policy makers from around the world will discuss the role of wind energy in the implementation of the Paris climate agreement across the world and how this is affecting the industry.

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The session focuses on conversion systems for wind turbines based on power electronics, mainly for off-shore applications. The trend of higher power brings several challenges related to compliance with grid requirements. Harmonics and resonances become crucial issues that require proper analysis and innovative yet practical solutions. This session covers aspects related to power converter architectures and the modulation and control of the converter. We will look at the interaction with the electrical grid as well as practical aspects about how to optimise the primary control in different wind conditions and how to effectively test the control of large-scale wind systems in emulated conditions.

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In this highly interactive quick-fire session, participants will scan through 14 LIDAR-related presentations and vote to select the three contributions they would like to hear in full. Presentations will cover a wide range of possible LIDAR applications, both offshore and onshore, such as power-curve validation, resource assessment in complex terrain, turbulence intensity measurements, and more.

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This supply chain session looks at opportunities for mitigating risks by transferring offshore approaches to onshore operations. It explores how an industrialised non-EU country is preparing for wind ramp-up and how development of new technology can still use an existing supply chain.

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Repowering is an important option in many markets, but operators need to investigate the economic case project by project, as conditions may vary considerably. Repowering has potential implications for short and medium EU renewable energy targets as it allows the further development of sites with good wind resources with more efficient turbines. As wind energy assets get older and are decommissioned, overall wind power production will decrease, affecting the share of electricity that the EU has committed to source from renewables by 2020 and 2030.

WindEurope is working on end-of-life issues and repowering, assessing the current situation, conducting surveys on national regulations and examining the economic case of the different options. This session will investigate repowering and life extension experiences across different EU countries, the business case for extending and repowering projects and the implications for EU energy policy.

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The world economy is going digital, and the wind power sector is no exception. Major manufacturers and operators are all rolling out industrial internet solutions to improve the performance and reliability of their turbines while bringing assembly and maintenance costs down. Digitisation is key to integrate even larger amounts of wind energy into the grid. The combination of unprecedented data collection and computing power opens a wide range of new possibilities to make wind power ever more competitive. However, when it comes to digitisation, the wind energy sector is still in its infancy compared to other industrial sectors.

This session will look at the digitisation of the wind energy sector and ask the following questions: What are the challenges and bottlenecks? Which success stories look promising? What can be learned from other, more advanced, industries? Where should R&I efforts focus and in which area should the collaboration be encouraged?

ETIPWind activities are funded by the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014–2015
Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy, B. 2.15. contract number: PP-03041-2014.

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Energy markets are undergoing changes that challenge their core structure and geographical boundaries. The cost of producing renewable energy declines with each technological advance. Consumers become prosumers, and the fossil fuel industries face increased economic, social and environmental costs. This session will look at the disruptions brought in by the energy transition, and discuss ways to harness its potential in order to promote constructive reforms to the way our society and economy work.

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In the conversion of wind power, the rotor is the first point of energy transformation, transforming the kinetic energy of the wind into torque and rotation. Rotor technology sets a limit of the energy converted and the loading required to convert this energy. The load cycles are design drivers, influencing the mass and operation of the rotor, and therefore the entire turbine. In addition to extracting kinetic energy from the flow, the rotor creates a pressure field that generates the wake and leads to noise generation. Rotor design optimisation must therefore account for power and load optimisation, constrained by the full lifecycle, fatigue life and noise, among other boundary conditions. This session focus on innovations in both rotor design methodologies and components.

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Advanced modelling methods are now standard in wind estimating modelling of annual energy production (AEP). In this session, speakers will present round robin tests of models for spatial variability of wind resource on projects using different modelling approaches. We will look at the consequences of including atmospheric stability in the calculation of AEP offshore and how you can measure wind profiles at heights of 100-200 metres by using LIDARs with emphasis on charactering extreme shear situations such as low-level jets causing extreme loads. Finally, we will hear about the variability of turbulence intensities measured offshore.

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In 2015 wind power accounted for 44% of all new power installations across Europe – more than any other technology. Wind power covers 12% of Europe’s electricity demand. In 2030, wind power could serve a quarter of the EU’s electricity needs and be the backbone of Europe’s energy system. This has and will have a major impact on how future energy systems operate. The wind power industry plays a fundamental role in this transition. This session will look at the challenges and opportunities this presents and give examples on how wind can support the energy transition.

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Public funding for R&I can be instrumental in enabling major technology breakthrough as shown in different industry sectors such as telecoms and aerospace. All major economies, including the United States and China, use it. The European Union, which has a tradition of investing in research, has pledged to remain the global leader on renewable energy technologies, including wind. It is ready to invest significant amounts of public money to reach that objective.

This session will provide participants with an overview of the challenges ahead for the wind industry in Europe, and present the R&I EU funding opportunities, with concrete examples of successful initiatives.

ETIPWind activities are funded by the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014–2015
Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy, B. 2.15. contract number: PP-03041-2014.

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The EU will not achieve its climate and energy objectives unless we put electricity into transport and heating. The good news is that an increasing number of motor manufacturers are rapidly developing electric mobility. For renewable heating and cooling, the technologies are mature and readily available. The electrification of these sectors will increase power demand and direct new investments in renewable technologies such as wind energy. Exploiting synergies across the entire energy system can maximise cost-efficient solutions for decarbonisation and a modernisation of energy systems in Europe.

This session will discuss the road ahead for combining renewable power and the uptake of electric vehicles and an increased use of renewable heating. The panel will address the following questions: What will drive electro-mobility forward in all EU Member States? How can we create market conditions that will unlock the benefits of electrification in the heating and cooling sector? How to design the future power infrastructure in order to facilitate variable wind power and electrify sectors? To what extent can wind power and sectors such as transport, heating and cooling serve each other’s needs going forward?

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Sites subject to cold climate not only have temperatures outside the normal limits of standard wind turbines but also atmospheric icing conditions which are frequent and may account for a significant loss in annual production. This session addresses the most recent advancements in the field of atmospheric icing effects on wind resource yield assessment. Assessing, measuring and estimating icing losses in the resource assessment phase of a project is of crucial importance for the successful business case of a wind farm in cold climates. Icing of the rotor blades can significantly reduce the energy yield of a wind farm up to 10% or more of the annual production and it also influences wind measurements by reducing availability.

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Apple, Facebook, Google, Norsk Hydro, Dutch Railways, and British Telecommunications have all announced long-term contracts to procure green electricity from renewable energy projects in Europe. Corporate power purchase agreements (PPA) today finance 1.2GW of wind capacity in Europe. This session will look at what potential lies in this nascent market and what role industrial players can play in bringing new and additional capacity online.

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Well-known companies from the onshore and offshore wind power industry explain their viewpoints on how to bring safety culture from back office to front-end operation from the paper and discussions in working groups to the field.

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Distributed generation can offer clear benefits but also challenges for existing distribution systems. Wind and photovoltaic power from rural areas cause voltage fluctuations and over-voltages after disturbances. High-voltage ride through (HVRT) testing procedures, pilot projects, guideline and code drafting all help to address the HVRT requirement for distributed generation. Using smart components such as line voltage regulators and smart transformers, which include power-electronics and reactive-power compensation, are among other ways to stabilise distribution-level voltage. Applying International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, ensuring cybersecurity and deploying real-time data exchange communication between wind farms and the distribution system operator (DSO) can easily control and facilitate the integration of more wind power into distribution networks.

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Through several research projects, the European Energy Research Alliance Joint Programme Wind (EERA JP Wind) generates innovative products that add value to the wind power industry, such as cost optimizers, modelling software and control algorithms.   

These products are presented to the industry through an innovative Technology Transfer Platform that aims at matching industry demand with the most recent technological developments offered by the European research organisations. The Integrated Research Programme on Wind (IRP Wind) is the EERA JPWind project that is currently developing this knowledge-sharing tool.

The audience will be introduced to the Technology Transfer Platform and to some of the most recent research developments in the wind energy sector, in order to gather views from industry representatives and discuss several topics of common concern to further align the wind power industry and the research community. 

Following the introductory speeches, an interactive (match-making) session will take place: EERA technology transfer experts from various European research institutes and companies will be at the disposal of the industry representatives to show some of the offers that are already available on the Platform and demonstrate how the industry could benefit from EERA JPWind research results.  

The interactive session will be organized around the following topics:

1. Grids systems, integration and infrastructure

Forecasting tools for wind power plant operation – IWES Fraunhofer

2. Operation and maintenance

Planning software – IWES Fraunhofer

3. Offshore balance of plant

Floating offshore wind farms - Tecnalia

4. Next generation technologies

Blade improvements - ECN

Next generation tests and measurements - ECN

External conditions - DTU

The Integrated Research Programme on Wind (IRP Wind) organises this session within the framework of EERA JP Wind.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme
for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No. 609795.

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Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kristian Jensen, will start this session with a keynote speech covering emerging wind energy markets beyond Europe. The following speakers will then provide an overview of the current status of the wind market in North Africa. They will describe the policy and market environment as well as challenges and opportunities in three specific markets with significant potential: Algeria, Egypt and Morocco.

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Cold climate sites are characterised by the occurence of icing events and/or periods with temperatures below the  operational limits of standard wind turbines. This session will address specific challenges faced during the operation of wind farms in cold climates. Topics include low-temperature compliance testing of wind turbines, methods for detection and analysis of icing events, as well as the  operational performance of de- and anti-icing systems.

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Countries will need to work together in order to achieve the EU 2030 climate and energy objectives. On 6 June this year, nine Member States took an important step towards increased regional cooperation on offshore wind power with a Declaration on co-operation in offshore wind in the North Seas declaration. What are the benefits of collaboration? How will Member States work together? And what is the potential for regional cooperation in relation to onshore wind power?

Engage with policy makers and industry leaders on the benefits and challenges of regional cooperation as they debate on finding the common ground and actions that will grow offshore wind power.

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This session examines how the sharing of best practice can improve the wind industry's health and safety performance through innovative, proactive research and hands-on experience.

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Offshore wind has successfully overcome many technical and cost challenges in recent years and grown at an impressive rate. However, investor appetite for this asset class remains mixed; many investors see considerable opportunities and lower risks, but others still shy away from the sector. This session will discuss what is positively and negatively affecting confidence levels, whether the risks are real or perceptual, and what can be done by the sector to further improve confidence. Overall, we will seek to answer the question - is offshore wind power now a mature asset class?

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This session will present an analysis of the possible positive and adverse environmental and socio-economic impacts that the application of “lean” principles in the offshore wind farm lifecycle and supply chain can have on local environments and communities. It will also set out the case study “Port of Oostende” to highlight the role ports play in a local community and show the challenges and benefits of ports being part of the offshore wind supply chain. Finally, the session will assess the possible costs savings from the holistic economic model and the industry uptake of the innovation it generates. Delegates' feedback will be sought in the course of the session and considered for integration in the further developments of the work.

See www.leanwind.eu for additional information on LEANWIND activities.

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union
Seventh Framework Programme (Ocean of Tomorrow call) under the agreement SCP2-GA-2013-614020

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The session will look at different storage technologies and solutions and explore their potential impact on the energy system, the business model for their deployment, their level of market-readiness, and how they (or already are) supporting the integration of higher amounts of wind in the grid.

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Modern control design methods like non-linear model predictive control can take account of complex dynamics and actuator constraints, while making use of richer information input from advanced sensors such as LIDARs. They contribute to the coordinated control of entire wind farms while meeting new operational demands from the electricity system. The session addresses advanced state estimation methods, an important component of such controllers. You will hear about field test results from a controller using wind preview from a LIDAR sensor as well as changes in design and certification guidelines needed to account for the use of LIDARs.

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This session will give an overview of the emerging technology of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), otherwise called drones, and their application to the remote inspection of wind turbines, with an emphasis on the assessment of blade damage. It will look at what has been done to date and what the capabilities may be for the future. Finally, it will consider the advantages and disadvantages of different inspection techniques.

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Numerical weather prediction models are increasingly being used for the estimation of wind resources over large regions. The large-scale wind resource maps resulting from such models are useful to identify favourable regions for wind energy deployment in the prospection phase. Often reanalysis data is used as the input for these models and one these datasets, MERRA from NASA, has recently been replaced by MERRA2. We will discuss the consequences of this change along with using micro-scale models to downscale. Speakers will also address the important subject of modelling storms using a coupled numerical weather model a spectral wave model.

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As the wind power industry moves towards competitiveness with thermal generation, support mechanisms will become less important. This will mean investors face a shift in the mix of risk in wind power investments. How will those risks be allocated? The scope for innovation in risk management will need to broaden, and risk protection providers will have to sharpen their suite of tools to get the work done. This session will review where the state of the art is today, and what the industry can expect for the future.

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This session will look at which new opportunities a revamped balancing market can offer.  New market players, system operators and policy-makers will discuss the conditions needed to improve the functioning of the existing balancing market. Industry players will share first-hand experience on participating in this market, which establishes one of the building blocks of the energy transition.

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In this session we will get deep into the forest! We will look at how computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be used in modelling the flow in forested areas, how to model profiles and also the turbulence. Different models will be applied and there will be lots of data from real forested sites around the world. The effects of using different input data will be investigated, and the use of lidar LIDAR scans to estimate roughness and other forest related parameters will be discussed. We will also hear about a series of experiments aiming amongst others to improve our understanding of flow in forested areas.

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In this session, participants will hear about the latest developments in wind turbine loading and system behaviour. Presentations will cover a variety of topics - from modelling approaches to turbine control. The research work presented brings new approaches which will help the industry increase the reliability of turbines and reduce installation costs, especially offshore. Presented results will rely on real-world measurements and operational data.

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DONG Energy’s auction price for the Borssele Wind Farm Sites I and II turned out to be a game changer. In this interactive session you can learn how the Dutch government helped drive down the costs of offshore wind as the co-developer of offshore wind projects. Is this the way forward to an era of booming offshore wind without subsidies? DONG Energy explains how as co-developer a government can successfully take part in a winning business strategy. The transmission systems operator TenneT presents the advantages of constructing five standardised platforms. After these presentations we will invite the audience to take part in a lively debate with the speakers.

Keynote speaker René Moor gives a glimpse of his presentation: "The Borssele 1 and 2 auction price was a giant leap in the development of the industry. Offshore wind turned out to be cheaper than we thought. Now it can have a bigger role in the transition towards sustainable energy supply. This should be the first step towards an era where offshore wind is competitive without subsidies and become one of the major climate neutral sources of electricity."

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During this session, Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of Global Wind Energy Council, will provide an overview of the current status of the wind market globally.  Three speakers from Iran and Ethiopia will join Steve to describe the policy and market environment in their respective countries, as well as outline the challenges and opportunities for companies wishing to do wind business in these markets.

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Moderator:

Steve Sawyer,

Secretary General, GWEC

Speakers:

Iran

Hashem Oraee
President, Iran Wind Energy Association

Mohammad Hassa Ghafouri
Founder and Managing Director, IRAN Wind/Aysa consulting, Iran

Ethiopia

Deo Onyango, Renewable Energy Leader, Sub-Saharan Africa, GE power and water

Wind power is variable and dependent on the weather, so fundamentally different from classic fuel-based power. Electricity markets wereoriginally designed with conventional central power stations in mind, but the developments in the last two decades have introduced ever larger amounts of renewable energy.

The session provides an overview of the different markets for wind power, and on the role wind power can play in those. The main angle of the session is money, but the underlying need to balance the grid at all times can be monetized in different ways. The session also shows how wind power can be a good grid citizen, and get access to different income than just to sell the power.

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This session will explore various technologies and methodologies to analyse and mitigate noise and visual impacts of wind farms. It will focus in particular on the capacity of the various technologies to foster acceptance among citizens living around a wind farm. Preventing negative impacts of wind farms on people means reducing noise and visual impact.

Chair and speakers will involve the audience by discussing the various examples of projects using these technologies. With the help of these examples, we will try to find out why certain technologies help to foster acceptance while others do not.

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This session will give an insight into wind turbine reliability and the state of the art in wind turbine diagnostics. It will look at how to collect and analyse reliability data in order to improve design as well as O&M strategies. This session will also look at the use of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) data for condition monitoring: both 'conventional' ten minute data and higher frequency 1Hz data. Finally, there will be a case study of how power data from the converter can be used to infer wind turbine loading.

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The session deals with aerodynamics, in particular computational aerodynamics. The session investigates a typical enginering blade element momentum (BEM) aerodynamic model, and demonstrates the merits of less empiric but computationally more comprehensive CFD modelling for yawed conditions and for tip vortex breakdown. We will also discuss the validation by 2D wind tunnel tests for high Reynolds numbers and how to use aerodynamics computations to analyse the effect of protuberances on blades.

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This session will follow the discussion of the results of the Borssele tender in The Netherlands. It will provide a brief overview and discussion of industry views on the potential for LCOE reduction onshore and offshore, consider how low LCOE might go in different territories and include a discussion of the context of LCOE when looking at energy markets.

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During this session, Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council, will provide an overview of the current status of the wind markets in South America.  Three speakers from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay will join him to describe the policy and market environment in their respective countries, as well as outline the challenges and opportunities for companies wishing to do wind business in these markets.

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Moderator:

Steve Sawyer

Secretary General, Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC)

Speakers:

Argentina

Ramiro Gomez Barinaga, Legal Advisor, Undersecretary for Renewable Energy at Ministry of Energy and Mining, Argentina

Chile

Jose Ignacio Escobar, General Manager, Acciona Energía, Chile

Vice President of Chilean Renewable Energy Association (ACERA)
 

Uruguay

Fernando Schaich
President, Uruguayan Wind Energy Association (AUDEE)

The session will explore case studies and experiences on environmental impacts and will draw lessons for similar projects. There will be a focus on repowering, environmental impact assessments and wildlife.

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This session will consider a number of approaches to reduce the cost of wind energy and to maximise the performance of the turbines. It will consider the latest innovations in pitch design and offshore support vessels, robust methodologies to maximise wind farm lifetimes and how the intelligent use of turbine measurements (SCADA and LIDAR) can maximise performance. Finally, we will look at the innovations required to reduce the cost of offshore wind energy.

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This session will look at the current position in floating wind energy, especially the latest technology developments towards its commercialization, and the challenges and future prospects of this exciting and promising way of harvesting offshore wind energy.

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Replacing Europe’s fossil-fuelled generation assets with renewable energy will require significant and sustained investments for decades to come. Certainty for private investors is crucial to complete the energy transition. However, in recent years abrupt - and in some cases retroactive - changes to support schemes and planning and permitting regimes have caused substantial losses for investors and created uncertainty for wind projects in several European markets. As a result, new wind investments are increasingly concentrated in a smaller number of markets, with Germany accounting for 50% in 2015.

What can be done to protect investors against retroactive changes and restore confidence in the markets that have been marred by political flip-flopping?

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In the session there will be five presentations on wake modelling and forecasting. They will focus on the limitations in wake modelling including comparison with field data, and will move into short-term power production forecasting as well as studies of uncertainty in wind power forecast methods. 

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On 23 June, the UK voted to leave the European Union. The decision rocked global markets, sent the pound tumbling and plunged Europe’s economic and political future into a wave of uncertainty. As the dust settles, the WindEurope Summit looks at what a UK outside the EU will mean for the deployment of wind energy and the prospects for the industry at-large.

The UK has been a market of mixed fortunes for wind energy in recent years. The onshore wind market is still reeling from abrupt cutbacks to support imposed by the last government. The changes mean that onshore wind deployment is likely to grind to a halt in 2016 and beyond as investor confidence dwindles and developers look elsewhere.

The story for offshore wind couldn’t be more different. Record investment and a series of large-scale projects mean the UK is a top destination for offshore wind development globally with over €10 billion of new capacity financed in the first six months of 2016. The previous Conservative government committed to three more auctions (CfDs) by 2020, assuming the industry meets its cost reduction targets. Policymakers have also outlined plans to add 1GW of offshore wind a year toward 2030.

In this session, the WindEurope Summit will bring together industry, lawmakers and experts to discuss the implications of the Brexit vote for onshore and offshore wind in the UK. Participants will provide brief opening statements followed by a panel discussion and questions for the audience.  

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The session will present various measures to support and maximise social acceptance. It will have four presentations: exploring engagement measures with local communities; research into effective involvement; real-life experience of successful approaches to social acceptance; and specific examples and case studies.

Finally, the session will conclude with WISE Power project announcing the winner of the Best Community Project Award for outstanding commitment to local people in a European wind energy project, which the winner will then present.  

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What have we learnt over the past three days and what are the necessary next steps? This session will  sum up the main lessons from WindEurope Summit 2016 about how to make the energy transition work and convey the key messages to policy makers.

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