Financing: European Research Council (ERC)

Project reference Nr.: 259166
Start: 2010-03-01
End: 2017-02-28

Description:

Microsoft Word - FormApplyForFWO310809.doc

Proposal Summary: A new class of large scale wind power generators shall be investigated via mathematicalmodelling, computer simulation and multidisciplinary optimization methods. The underlying technical idea isto use fast flying tethered airfoils that fly in altitudes of several hundred meters above the ground. Theywill perform specially controlled loops accompanied by line length and line tension variations, that are used todrive a generator on the ground. Preliminary studies have shown that the new technology – that is not subjectto the known scale-up limitations of conventional windmills – promises to generate wind power much moreefficiently.Being a high risk / high gain technology, the applicant believes that the main focus in the first developmentyears should not be on building large and expensive experimental setups (as some courageous experimentalistscurrently do in Europe and the US), but on mathematical modelling, computer simulation and optimizationstudies, accompanied by only small scale experiments for model and control system validation. Thiswill help finding optimal system designs before expensive and potentially dangerous large scale systems arebuilt. The research requires an interdisciplinary collaboration of scientists from mathematical, mechanical,aerospace, and control engineering, as well as from the computational sciences. 

http://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~highwind/

SMC people involved in the project:

• Moritz Diehl (Promoter)
• Kurt Geebelen (Team member)
• Reinhart Paelinck (Team member)
• Sebastien Gros (Team member)