IEA Wind Task 41: Enabling Wind to Contribute to a Distributed Energy Future (Working period 2019 - 2023)

IEA Wind Task 41 aims to create framework conditions for decentralised small and medium-sized wind turbines in order to establish them as a competitive and reliable technology for decentralised energy generation. A strategic focus in the pursuit of this goal is the revision of the IEC standard for wind turbines, taking into account the latest research results.

Short Description

Task 41 deals with decentralized wind power plants, their technological development and evaluation, the development of cost-saving potentials as well as their integration into future energy systems and markets. The technological spectrum ranges from small wind turbines (from 1 kW) to large wind turbines. The aim of Task 41 is to advance international research in this field in order to enable further technological development and the exploitation of cost-saving potential and, in parallel, to create framework conditions that will enable integration into future energy systems and markets.

Goals and contents

Recommendations for the revision of standards
Design of a platform for the exchange of measurement data
Collection of high-quality data sets as a basis for development
Analysis and revision of existing yield forecasting tools
Recommendations for the design of standards for the grid connection of wind turbines
Development of a tool for planning island and micro grids
Development of models for the control of wind turbines in island and micro grids
Cooperation with other IEA tasks

Work packages

WP0 Management and Coordination
WP1 Design Standards for small and mid-sized wind turbines
WP2 Data Sharing Portal for DW Research
WP3 Accurate performance assessment
WP4 Integration of DW into expanding distributed generation marketplace
WP5 Outreach and collaboration
WP6 Innovation to reduce technology LCOE

Austria can actively contribute to WP1 and WP2 due to extensive knowledge from national research projects as well as practical experience from the Energy Research Park Lichtenegg. Among other things, concrete proposals for the revision of international standards were provided and measurement data was made available for the data exchange platform. Furthermore, thanks to the excellent networking within the European community, collaborations with external stakeholders and further tasks were initiated within WP5, e.g. a conference for decentralized wind energy in Vienna.

Nationally achieved results during the project lifetime:

Participation in the Stakeholder Forum for the revision of IEC 61400.
Dissemination of relevant national research results within the task meetings
- SmallWindPower@Home
- Smalwind4Cities
- Master thesis
Organization of a two-day IEA Task Conference in Vienna
Open day in the energy research park Lichtenegg
Dissemination of a report on the topic "Decentralized Wind Energy in Austria
Creation of an expert and stakeholder network of small wind power producers, operators, and researchers

Project Images

Terms of use: The pictures listed underneath the header “Project Pictures” originate from the projects in the frame of the programmes City of Tomorrow, Building of Tomorrow and the IEA Research Cooperation. They may be used credited for non-commercial purposes under the Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC).

Participants

Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Republic of Korea, Spain, USA

Contact Address

Alexander Hirschl-Schmol MSc., Daniel Österreicher MSc.
Fachhochschule Technikum Wien
E-Mail: hirschl@technikum-wien.at; oesterrd@technikum-wien.at