Today, there is a 10-15 % risk of uncertainty when predicting a wind turbine’s power generation with mathematical models. The reason is that we do not have the right tools to distinguish between forests and plain areas. Instead, we evaluate the characteristics of the landscape manually.

Now, the partners behind the project InnoWind will do something about this and the project is a big step in the right direction. Within the next three years, the project will get even closer to the surface ground, which means it will be possible to identify the most promising locations for new onshore wind farms with more certainty.

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- It will boost the wind turbine adventure in countries around the world and can have a major economic impact for the Danish wind industry, which will supply some of the turbines.  We expect that InnoWind eventually can lead to new orders of DKK billions.  We have seen this in South Africa when the country received its first wind atlas in 2015. With the InnoWind project the potential is even bigger, says Senior Scientist for DTU Wind Energy and Manager of InnoWind, Merete Badger.

It is DTU Wind Energy, who are behind the InnoWind project together with DHI GRAS, EMD International, Vestas and Vattenfall.

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Today, simple models are used to see how the wind blows across the landscape. InnoWind will succeed these models by utilizing a new generation of satellites from the European Space Agency (ESA). Based on this satellite data, the partners will produce geographical maps that are more precise and cover the whole world.

- InnoWind will customize products from ESA's new Copernicus satellites and card services to fit the needs of the wind industry. The use of satellite data will strengthen Danish companies in the competition of building new wind farms around the world, says Project Manager Merete Badger.

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At Vattenfall there is no doubt that they will join the project, says senior R & D Engineer, Anders Sommer:

- At Vattenfall, we are very interested in onshore wind turbines. InnoWind can help  enlighten us on how the wind blows in different kinds of nature. It is very useful for us and we look forward to getting started on the project.

Partners:

• DTU Wind Energy
• DTU Space
• DHI GRAS
• EMD International
• Vestas
• Vattenfall

Source: Innovationsfonden