ECN involved in 80 per cent of wind farms

The majority of wind farms worldwide is located on the North Sea, off the coast of Great-Britain, Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands. According to an inventory, ECN was involved in eight out of ten of these wind farms. Together with its industrial partners, ECN is leading the way in the search for an increasingly higher efficiency at an increasingly lower cost.

ECN plays various roles.

• In the preparatory stage as a source of knowledge for investors: which yield and which maintenance costs can be expected at a certain location?

• In the planning stage as a designer of wind farms, who, by taking into account the local conditions, is able to strike an optimal balance between a compact layout and a high yield per turbine.

• In the operational stage as a supplier of programmes for efficient maintenance planning and strategic turbine management.

For countries with an emerging wind industry, such as Taiwan and Korea, the North Sea is a textbook example of state-of-the-art wind farm design and management. And so these countries regularly find their way to ECN for advice, design and pilot expertise.