Summer 2022 Virtual Task Meeting
July 5-6, 2022

5 July morning session (0500-0700 PDT): Work Package 1, Task Management, General Updates

6 July morning session (0500-0700 PDT): Presentations from Tasks 52 (Lidar) and 54 (Cold Climates), Work Package 4, Work Package 6

6 July evening session (2200-2400 PDT): Work Package 3, Work Package 5, University Research

IEA Standards Virtual Meeting
April 13, 2021

This virtual meeting focused on IEC standards and how to identify and jointly conduct research that will be the technical backstop used by future standards-making experts. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is leading one effort to improve the quality of aeroelastic modeling efforts and find new methods to validate these aeroelastic models with loads measurements. There is a general preference to develop aeroelastic models instead of using the Simplified Loads Models specified in IEC 61400-2. Further refinement of research challenges for IEC 61400-2 was documented in the draft “Recommendations on potential standards for distributed wind driving research via IEA Task 41.”

Winter 2021 Virtual Meeting
February 9, 10, and 18, 2021

Task 41 switched from a Fall/Spring to a Summer/Winter task meeting schedule. This change was initiated with the February 2021 virtual task meeting. Task 41 members and guests attended three sessions: Cost Modeling and University Research Collaboration (Session 1, February 9), Distributed Wind in Evolving Electricity Systems (Session 2, February 10), and Wind Resource Assessment and Obstacle Monitoring (Session 3, February 18).

More than 30 experts participated from 12 countries. Guests included Task 26 (Cost of Wind Energy) to discuss cost modeling.

Session 2 was devoted to understanding definitions such as hybrid power plant and hybrid power system, highlighting ongoing work in Denmark and the United States, and identifying synergistic activities such as black start studies, development of distributed wind turbine models, and dynamic models. Google Jamboard was used to capture input on several topic areas.

Session 3 focused on the challenges of understanding distributed wind resources and included discussions of:

• The U.S. Department of Energy-funded Tools Assessing Performance (TAP) project, whose objective is a site-specific understanding of obstacle influence on distributed wind turbine performance
• Austrian measurement results for building-mounted small wind turbine assessment
• Danish approaches to resource assessment and terrain modeling based on the Fence experiment, using LiDAR to understand the impacts of wind blockages.

Meeting Series
New University Research Collaboration on Distributed Wind Technologies
November 24-26, 2020

Under the auspices of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Wind Technology Collaboration Programme (TCP) Task 41 – Enabling Wind to Contribute to a Distributed Energy Future, members launched a pilot project to facilitate globally distributed wind research. This effort is open to participants with wind turbine design research expertise. A key element to enabling the wider use of distributed wind energy is continuing to lower its life cycle cost. The distributed wind community is looking for opportunities for not only down-scaling large wind turbine design that may be appropriate for distributed wind turbines but also for up-scaling small wind turbine design with a goal of matching the pace of cost reductions seen in other renewable energy technologies.

We are aware of several leading university professors and graduate students currently researching distributed wind turbine designs and features. We are hoping to expand the number of technical papers and journal articles pertaining to distributed wind turbine design, laying the groundwork for a better understanding of future industry-wide cost reduction opportunities. In today’s virtual environment, there are new opportunities to collaborate, share research results, and build international academic rapport.

We planned virtual meetings in the 2020-21 academic year to discuss distributed wind research needs identified by the distributed wind industry.

Our goals are to:

• Begin to build global collaborative research targeted at expanding the volume of distributed wind research results.
• Build a platform for more students to engage their minds in distributed wind technologies and produce capstone projects, technical papers, journal articles, and theses highlighting research results that are important to securing a cleaner energy future that is applicable around the globe.
• Provide an opportunity for a global community to present research findings through an annual virtual symposium.
• Share relevant research topics for distributed wind energy development.
• Facilitate feedback from industry and Task 41 experts on research findings.