By Renewable Energy Focus staff

The wind energy research group also includes the Centre for Wind Energy Research of the Universities of Oldenburg, Hanover and Bremen.

Over 430 employees at 35 institutions and research institutes will join the efforts which will look at basic and application oriented investigations including a supercomputer for flow simulations, a large wave flume and a test facility for wind turbine blades up to 90 m in length.

The wind research centre will cover areas such as meteorology, rotor blades, power train, nacelles and supporting structures.

Professor Dr-Ing Andreas Reuter, Head of Fraunhofer IWES, says: “In the past years ForWind and Fraunhofer IWES have established themselves in the wind energy sector as experts sought after by industry, science, politics and society. It was therefore only logical to team up and form the National Wind Energy Research Association.

“By combining our research activities, we are in a position to keep pace with the international research associations that set the tone in Denmark and the US. As a consequence, research reaches a level corresponding to the technological leadership of the German wind energy industry.”

The first joint program of the National Wind Energy Research Association is the Wind Energy 2020 research initiative, which aims to help Germany meet its goal of 35% renewable electricity by 2020.