IEA Wind Task 54: Wind Energy in Cold Climates (Working period 2025 - 2029)

In order to achieve the expansion targets for renewable energies, generation plants will increasingly have to be erected at locations with more demanding framework conditions in the future. For wind energy, this means planning and operating turbines under icing conditions in many countries. The task examines and evaluates technological solutions in this environment and publishes procedural recommendations in the form of technical reports and guidelines.

Short Description

The European Commission's European Green Deal to combat climate change and achieve climate neutrality requires a massive expansion of renewables in all member states. Climate targets are also becoming more ambitious worldwide, and with them the expansion targets for wind energy. In many countries with a pronounced winter climate, this means planning and operating wind turbines at locations with considerable icing potential.

Task 54 (formerly 19) of the IEA Wind TCP has been dealing with the various challenges of planning and operating wind turbines under icing conditions for more than 15 years. The current working period focuses on the following topics:

Strategies for operational management
Management of the ice throw risk
Performance of wind turbines and blade heating systems
Offshore wind energy
Complexity of icing events
Systematic consideration of uncertainties
Icing wind tunnel validations

The ever increasing share of wind energy generation under icing conditions, combined with increasingly volatile market conditions, leads to a need for strategies for the predictive operation of wind farms under icing risk in order to take into account both safety aspects and, in particular, techno-economic aspects. In Austria, large-scale weather fronts that lead to icing of wind turbines can affect a large number of wind farms at the same time and lead to abrupt shutdowns of planned generation capacity in the GW range, and the trend is rising. Solutions are therefore needed that, on the one hand, enable continued operation in the event of icing and, on the other, improve the prediction and control of operation under icing conditions.

In Europe, the requirement to shut down plants in the event of icing is limited to Austria and Germany. In many cases, a blanket shutdown when ice is detected leads to a shutdown even during icing events, during which there is a high probability that there is no relevant risk to people. The impact of these shutdowns on the electricity grid is considerable and will be further increased by the successive and accelerated expansion of wind power. In other countries, however, continued operation under icing conditions - which is technically possible - is permitted.

The Austrian participation in the task is intended to provide a scientifically sound basis for changing the current practice of blanket shutdowns in the event of icing. An international comparative study and coordinated recommendations on risk assessment, mitigation and prediction in relation to potential ice throw will be presented for joint discussion not only in the Austrian wind industry but also specifically to the authorities and experts involved in ice fall, safety technology and occupational safety.

Participants

Austria, Canada (Task Manager), Denmark, Finland (Operating Agent), Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland

Contact Address

Energiewerkstatt Verein
Dipl.-Phys. Claas Rittinghaus
Heiligenstatt 23
A-5211 Friedburg
Tel.: +43 (7746) 28212 - 13
E-mail: claas.rittinghaus@energiewerkstatt.org