The new Fraunhofer institute will provide research and development for the wind industry, ranging from material development, to power grid integration. It is part of a larger institute IWES, soon to include Solar Energy Supply Technology ISET.
By the year 2020, 20% of used energy in the EU is to derive from wind energy. Most of the wind power will be generated in off-shore wind farms, so there is a need for moving production facilities to the coasts. The headquarters of the new institute will be close to the manufacturers' production facilities, in Bremerhaven.
The institute(s) will also keep close ties with universities. So far, cooperation has been done with University of Kassel, with additional two project groups to be set up at the University of Hanover and at the University of Oldenburg. University of Bremen will also be cooperating with the institute.
The new Fraunhofer Institute will gather experts from various disciplines in the future. Research will be done in the fields of materials, components, as well as in the electrotechnical field. One of the special areas of research will be the integration of wind power electricity into public power grids. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Land of Bremen have invested about 12.8 million euros in total into the construction of research facilities for Center for Wind Energy and Maritime Technologies CWMT (now part of Fraunhofer IWES). One of the results of this investment is a research building 85 meters long and 25 meters high, designed especially for wind turbine blade research.
Image credit: Fraunhofer IWES
