Digital framework architecture for the development of a virtual wind farm with economic connectivity

DiRaWi

To enable rapid innovation in the field of wind energy and achieve ambitious climate protection goals through the interconnected collaboration of scientific disciplines at the DLR, and considering the requirements of external stakeholders, a Virtual Wind Farm (VWF) is proposed to complement the new DLR Research Wind Farm at the Krummendeich site.

Since 2012, various projects funded by PD-E (Program Directorate Energy) such as MERWind, RoDeO, and ViSion have adapted, expanded, and integrated numerical methods, both LoFi (Low-Fidelity - very fast) and HiFi (High-Fidelity - very accurate), based on decades of aeronautical research, for wind energy applications. These methods enable scientific analyses and simulations far beyond the standard level, which are urgently needed to unlock technological potentials in the wind energy industry. These methods themselves represent a "DLR treasure" that will continue to be developed, independently of this project, in projects like LAISA (a follow-up project of ViSion). However, it must be noted that there are several gaps in the DLR's tool repertoire for the complete numerical modeling of wind turbines and wind farms, which need to be addressed by suitable (at least state-of-the-art) methods to ensure the successful deployment of the VWF. The coupling of multidisciplinary methods, with user-dependent focus on different problem areas (loads, noise, energy yield, weight, resilience, cost, etc.), requires a flexible modular software framework.

Lead Institute

Participating institutes

Type of project

Research project

Funding organisations

PD-E