Wind Turbine Testing

ECN Windturbine Test Site Wieringermeer

From 2003 ECN has expanded its wind turbine facilities with a wind turbine test site in the municipality of Wieringermeer. The site is located just south of the village Kreileroord, at about 30 km distance from ECN’s premises in Petten.

The harbour “De Oude Zeug” is at 8 km distance and can be used for the transport of large turbine
components. The blade test facility WMC (Wind Turbine Materials and Construction) is located at
the harbour. For visitors it’s an easy drive from the Amsterdam airport “Schiphol”. The highway A7
has an exits runs 8 km from the site.

ECN’s test site is a unique facility and comprises a combination of a wind farm and prototype test locations The wind farm - consisting of five Nordex N80 wind turbines - enables ECN to perform wind farm specific research and development programs. The site also comprises four prototype locations. These locations enable manufacturers to test, optimize and certify prototypes together with ECN. Supporting facilities are four meteo towers, a 36 MVA grid connection, data collection equipment and a test site control center. The site has a favorable wind climate: the average wind speed at 100 m height is 8,3 m/s.

Wind turbines for state-of-the-art R&D

The five Nordex N80 turbines produce about 28.000.000 kWh per year. The income of this green electricity gives a solid base for the financial exploitation of the site. The turbines are used by ECN for progress and
development of our R&D programs. The focus on medium and long term R&D is important to assure future development and innovation. In general commercial wind farms use their capacity for achieving maximum energy production. ECN investigates aspects like operation and maintenance strategies; wake effects, and condition monitoring. Other important activities are the development of improved wind farm control strategies and new advanced measurement techniques.