CL-Windcon Project Aims to Cut LCoE by 10%

The European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme is funding CL-Windcon (Closed Loop Wind Farm Control) project with EUR 4.9 million. CL-Windcon aims to lead to a reduction of the levelised cost of energy by 10% achieved through an increase in energy production, a reduction of O&M costs, lifetime extension and material cost reductions.

The project, which kicked off last month and will last for three years, will address advanced modelling, open- and closed-loop control algorithms at a farm level, by treating the entire wind farm as a comprehensive real-time optimisation problem.

The main challenge for the project, comprising 14 partners from 6 countries, is to carry out an advanced control of large wind turbines and wind farms on a global scale, simultaneously improving the efficiency and reducing the cost of energy. Another challenge consists in the application of the new solutions developed within the project to existing and newly-designed farms.

CL-Windcon sets out a new way of designing and operating wind farms, shedding light on the closed-loop control paradigm. It deals with the uncertainties at farm level, and ultimately seeks the increase of power output and the reduction of the uncertainty corresponding to such power output.

The expected outcomes of the project are: a reduction of the levelized cost of energy (LCoE) of 10%, achieved through an increase in the wind farm energy production by 4-5%, a reduction of O&M costs by 4%, a lifetime extension of 1%, and a material cost reduction for turbine components by 3-4%.

CL-Windcon will also include a comprehensive analysis of economic and environmental impact of the technical improvements resulting from the project, as well as standards review for future wind turbine and farms design.

The partners of the project are, by countries: Ramboll, General Electric, University of Stuttgart, Technical University of Munich and UL International GMBH / DEWI (Germany); Enel Green Power and Politecnico di Milano (Italy); Aalborg University (Denmark); Delft University of Technology and the Energy Research Centre-ECN (The Netherlands), Garrad Hassan (United Kingdom), and, Ikerlan-IK4, Qi Europe, and CENER as project coordinator (Spain).