Quality offensive by the German wind energy industry

The expansion of wind energy is an important political and commercial aspect of Germany’s strategy for the future. For this reason the establishment of a nacelle test stand for wind turbines is being jointly funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the State of Bremen, and the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRD). Fraunhofer IWES in Bremerhaven is responsible for the planning, construction, and operation of this test stand.

The Dynamic Nacelle Laboratory (DyNaLab) will start up in 2014 and will be the first nacelle test facility in Germany for testing drive powers up to 10 megawatts. The facility will cover an area of about 2000 square meters and will enable state-of-the-art nacelles with drive powers from 2 to 7.5 megawatts to be tested. The carrying out of tests in the laboratory and on the wind turbine under near-real conditions will promote the development of efficient and reliable wind turbines.

This will spur on the expansion of wind energy in Germany and safeguard our international market share in the longer term. The “Made in Germany” label will hold even more promise for German manufacturers if the quality and functional reliability of their products stand out and if this can be demonstrated in tests.

“The nacelle test stand will be another milestone in the professionalization and industrialization of the wind energy industry” assures Institute Director Prof. Andreas Reuter. The technical reliability of a nacelle, which can weigh up to 400 metric tons, largely determines the overall availability of a wind turbine to the grid.

The drive train is the core component of a nacelle and is the high-load link between the flow-mechanical energy conversion by the rotor system and the electromechanical energy conversion on the grid side. Meaningful field tests will give manufacturers opportunities to optimize and further develop drive trains, generators, converters, and control concepts. It may also encourage the use of new materials for electromechanical engineering.

The technical specifications of the nacelle test stand have already been defined. In the short term, the testing of the integration of wind turbines into grids will bring major benefits. In the medium term the plan is to also develop and validate test and certification methods which the Fraunhofer IWES wants to realize on the new test stand in collaboration with its partners.

“We plan to move a large part of the necessary certification testing into the laboratory”, says Dr. Jan Wenske, Head of DyNaLab and Head of the Drive Train group at Fraunhofer IWES. This will enable the processes to be noticeably accelerated.