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Pooling wind energy expertise

Establishment of a group of researchers into high-performance electronics for wind energy installations

High-performance electronics is increasingly becoming a key technology for the energy transition. Almost all multi-megawatt wind energy installations are connected to the grid via high-performance electronics. This technology is crucial for the integration of wind energy into the grid and for transporting the electricity generated across large distances.

The establishment of the group of researchers into high-performance electronics for wind energy installations and the orientation to applied research and advanced training in the field of high-performance electronics is intended to give the Bremen Centre for Mechatronics (BCM) a new forward-looking field of activity and to develop the group of researchers into a permanent, self-sustaining research service unit at the BCM.

For example, the project is to include the establishment of a transfer-oriented group of researchers at Bremen University, forming a skills hub between the research fields of the IALB in high-performance electronics and those of Fraunhofer IWES in Bremerhaven in wind energy. The IALB has the only professorial chair in Germany which researches the impact of environmental conditions on the lifetime of high-performance components. With its unique laboratory infrastructure, such as its gondola test bed, Fraunhofer IWES feeds in its special expertise in the identification of robust indicators for causes of faults and failure mechanisms in wind energy technology.

High-performance grid and installation models

Image of a machine

The activities of the new transfer group are to include tests and research and development work on high-performance grid and installation models which can be used to study the dynamic aspects of grid integration down to the millisecond, and which can be deployed to optimise the control of wind energy installations. Also, there will be special experimental platforms, such as a 50 kW gondola test bed where alternative operating concepts can be tested experimentally on a small scale in the laboratory.

The funding aims to establish new cooperation agreements in the form of research contracts and collaborative projects with companies. The research findings will be used to develop services, such as measurement campaigns or product-oriented wear-and-tear studies, as well as thematic workshops.

The establishment of the group of researchers into high-performance electronics for wind energy installations will build up expertise in the State of Bremen which cannot be generated by the companies, particularly SMEs, themselves, but which is urgently needed for their products to be competitive. The group of researchers thus forms a link between the manufacturers of high-performance electronic components, the manufacturers of wind energy converters, and the manufacturers of wind energy installations. This means that the group is of great importance for the companies in the wind energy sector in Bremen and beyond the region, and represents an important extension to the cluster of wind energy expertise in Bremen.

Project data

Area of impact:Site of implementation:Total volume (ERDF programme):of which national public funding:of which ERDF funding:
City of BremenStadt Bremern 1.500.000 €750.000 €750.000 €[

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