The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN)

Contact

ECN Wind Energy
P.O. Box 1
NL-1755 ZG Petten
The Netherlands

phone: +31 224 564115
fax: +31 224 56 8214
e-mail: wind@ecn.nl
web: www.ecn.nl/wind

The unit ECN Wind Energy is part of the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN); an independent market oriented knowledge centre for energy research and development. The strategic position between universities and industry has been a successful basis for many developments and innovations since the start of ECN's wind energy activities in 1975. With 40 employees ECN is covering all relevant wind energy disciplines. ECN's research varies from long term and more fundamental research to high level consultancy for industry. Core activities include aerodynamic and structural design and analysis of wind turbines, design of control algorithms, resource assessment, wind farm design and monitoring of wind farm operation through power performance and mechanical load measurements.
ECN Wind Energy is committed to bring wind energy down the learning curve: our mission is to increase the value and reduce the costs of wind energy. That is the drive for our research activities. That is the reason we are using our expertise for turbine manufacturers and their suppliers, project developers and investors, contractors and wind farm operators.


Research groups involved

Within the Unit ECN Wind Energy there are three research groups, focusing on different research lines, and a group specialized in conducting measurements and experiments:

The group Design & Control covers the priority areas: Wind Turbine Control
Aero Elastics - the structural dynamic part
The group Aerodynamics covers the priority areas: Aero Elastics - the rotor aerodynamic part
Wind Farm Aerodynamics
The group Wind Farm Operation & Condition Monitoring focuses on two priority areas: Condition Monitoring and Measurement Techniques
Operation and Maintenance
The group Experiments & Measurements provides the experimental services for the different R&D projects in all research areas and is accredited according to ISO 17025 for: Power Performance Measurements
Noise Measurements
Load Measurements

Facilities & Advanced Research Tools

Wind farm for R&D purposes (EWTW) ECN owns a research wind farm, consisting of five 2.5 MW wind turbines for experimental purposes.
Scaled farm ECN operates a scaled wind farm, consisting of 10 wind turbines with a rotor diameter of 7 meters and 16 measurement masts for experiments in the field of wake and farm aerodynamics and farm control strategies.
Test site for proto type turbines (EWTW) The ECN test site offers a well-balanced infrastructure for prototype testing of offshore wind turbines up to 6 MW, including three measurement masts of 108 m height.
Test site for smaller turbines ECN offers a smaller test site for prototype testing of wind turbines up to 250 kW.
Measurement equipment ECN developed a distributed data acquisition system, called Dante, including software for data analysis. ECN also offers a system to register bird collisions (WT-Bird) and a system and software for blade monitoring with optical strain gauges.
Blade test facility (WMC) Together with TU Delft, ECN founded WMC, a new testing facility for wind turbine blades up to 70 meters.
Facility for destructive material research (WMC) At WMC different testing infrastructure is available for destructive and non-destructive testing of composite materials.
Software ECN provides a wide range of design software for industrial use, including software for blade design, structural design, controller design and software for optimizing operation and maintenance of wind farms
Accreditation ECN is ISO 17025 accredited for power performance measurements, mechanical load measurements and noise measurements, and is a full member of MEASNET.
Wind tunnels Wind tunnel facilities exist near to ECN at the German Dutch Wind tunnel DNW (the largest wind tunnel in Europe), at TNO and at TU Delft.

R&D Strategy

TERM
shortmediumlong
Supporting turbine and blade manufacturers in specific R&D issues
Developing integral design tools (and sub-models) for designing heavy-duty low-maintenance large turbines in extreme conditions - rotor aerodynamics and structural dynamics
Research into improved availability and reliability of offshore turbines and the development of cost-effective measuring systems and software for optimal Operation & Maintenance strategies
Developing tools for designing multi-parameter control algorithms and strategies
Developing knowledge and models of flow in and between wind farms and control strategies for optimum wind farm operation - wake and farm aerodynamics
Modelling wind turbines, wind farms and grid models and conducting studies on grid integration of large quantities of offshore wind energy in the electricity grid

Education and training activities

The Wind Energy department of ECN has strong links with universities throughout Europe. Staff members of ECN participate in advisory boards of different universities and scientific committees.
On a regular base, staff members of ECN are invited guest lecturers at universities. ECN offers dedicated courses related to the design software and the different research topics. PhD candidates are frequently working at ECN for shorter and longer time periods.