Wind Energy

At TU Delft, we carry out ground-breaking research into both onshore and offshore wind energy. The size of new wind turbines has increased to such an extent that they must be built using new materials and structures, applying newly-developed insights in the fields of wind loads, fluid mechanics and control engineering.

Our researchers focus on new concepts designed to reduce the loads on the support structures, more reliable wind turbines and wind farm operations, and the optimization of the entire energy supply chain from wind to the grid, including the incorporation of the electricity from wind power plants within the European power grid.

Master thesis

The following departments offer graduation projects in the Wind Energy profile:

  • Flow Physics and Technology (Aerospace Engineering)
  • Electrical Sustainable Energy (Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
  • Hydraulic Engineering (Civil Engineering)

Examples of graduation projects

  • SJOEM, the Simple Jacket Optimization Engineering Model – Johan Antonissen
  • Infield Cable Topology Optimization of Offshore Wind Farms – Georgios Katsouris
  • Improving the Wind Farm efficiency by simple means – Evangelos Ploumakis
  • Wind Turbine Load Extrapolation. Uncertainty quantification of 50-year ultimate wind turbine load estimations – Stefan van Eijk
  • Structural Optimization of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Blade - The Smart Rotor Case – Konstantinos Matis
  • An experimental study into accuracy of novel techniques in Power Curve verification – Rik Wessels
  • Innovative Rotor Design Concepts for a 10 MW Wind Turbine – Stefanos Kalenteridis
  • Simplified fatigue assessment of offshore wind support structures accounting for variations in a farm: Pumping Kites Wind Farm – Pietro Faggiani
  • Optimization, Scaling and Economics of Pumping Kite Power Systems – Christoph Grete

Ideas for future graduation projects

Grid integration aspects:

Grid frequency control with virtual spinning reserve; (inter)National wind energy variation and correlation; Power fluctuations of wind farms (storms/wakes); Country interconnections through offshore wind farms

Social/institutional integration aspects:

Effects of wind variations on electricity prices; Scenario’s for large scale implementation of wind energy; Wind farm portfolio and asset management

Wind farm systems engineering aspects:

Layout optimisation; Upscaling effects; Multidisciplinary design of turbines and farms; Complex designs tasks.