Coordinator

• RWTH Aachen University, CT Engineering Group

Topics and objectives

Question to be answered: Which regulatory requirements are needed for a sustainable AWE deployment? Where and how to deploy AWE safely in a technological feasible and affordable way?

In Task 48’s second term, WP3 will extend from the focus on airspace integration to also other permitting related issues as well as markets, significantly driven by regulation. Aeronautical regulatory efforts will be focused on introducing AWES as airspace legitimate users under both approaches: “airspace segregated obstacle”-approach and “airspace integrated drone”-approach.

The explicit goal is to create more potential areas for the operation of AWES while minimizing restrictions on conventional air traffic. Hence, flight operations could be even enabled in the vicinity of airports and landing sites in areas, where the obstacle approach is not feasible. This WP will work reach out where appropriate to authorities (EASA, FAA, CAAs, …) and other technical standardization entities (IEC TC 88,
…), other permitting authorities and other experts in the field.

– Airspace integration

• Provide further guidance to stakeholders on how to include AWE in airspace regulation, ideally on European level but also considering national regulation:
  Document lessons learned and experiences from pilot, demonstration and commercial projects and to share within the AWE community, thus developing further input/data/knowledge on technological paths/aspects and aeronautical regulatory subjects:
  o Document experiences from different projects and use cases, including e.g. how Specific Operations Risk Assessments (SORA) are applied and how operational permits (including cross-border permits) are achieved.
  o Assess project experiences regarding replicability, ease of implementation, etc. (e.g. with SWOT) o Gather experience on Concepts of operations (CONOPS) for different AWE concepts (without going too much into details)
  o Develop common position on aspects where this possible (focus on common points not on differences)
  o Bridge the gap between existing regulation and specific designs by identifying common points while still accommodating the particular needs and recognizing different CONOPS.
• Provide input to laws and regulationsto aviation authorities based on e.g. European Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947, ICAO documents, FAA regulation, and other national regulations. Focus is on how this regulation needs to be adjusted to accommodate future AWES.
• Investigate inclusion of AWE in future airspace.
  o Develop a concept on electronic visibility (e.g. by using transponders) of all airspace users in the vicinity of AWE wind farms.
  o Explore and assess possibilities of autonomous AWE operation from Ground Control Station (GCS), e.g. allowing a single operator to safely control many AWES flying simultaneously (1:many-relation)
  o Investigate and contribute to the inclusion of AWE in U-Spaces
  o Make use of flexible use of airspace, benefitting for power generation. Investigate requirements and lessons learned from projects and find out where AWE could be included in airspace which is currently blocked for conventional wind due to military airspace interest.

– Siting and permitting

Develop AWES site assessment process and supporting tools which can be adapted to the different machine topologies (i.e. ground-gen, fly-gen, rotary, etc) and required operationalspace Map permitting procedures and provide guidelines / comparisons (e.g. BImschG in Germany, ….)

• Further improve the GIS analysis tool for AWE potential, adjust methodology where needed (e.g. considering wind direction and different buffer zones) apply it to new countries (planned: Spain and Norway) and re-run analysis for certain regions of the countries that have been already analysed, e.g. North-West Germany, North-East Netherlands, parts of France.
• Define a common approach for site identification:
  o Identifying land areas big enough to deploy an AWES farm, preferably public and that can be used for the purpose (including available grid connection).
  o Guaranteeing a minimum level of yearly average and ideally directional wind for AWES at previously identified sites.
  o Guaranteeing there are no flight restrictions at previously identified sites
  o Perform meteorological historical data analysis (i.e. using 20 years statistics): wind
  speed/direction, risk of fog, precipitation and base cloud elevation.
• Develop guidelines for grid connection (in collaboration with with WP1)

– Market preparation

• Develop recommendations on AWE entry-markets and investigating optimal development paths different market segments, including e.g. markets for hybrid power plants
• Assess the electricity generation potential at selected sites, first for Europe and US, then for other sites, using the derived wind resource data and AWES power curves.
• Identify barriers and opportunities in existing legislation and power systems regulation and elaborate ways on how to overcome them for AWE deployment

– Standardisation 

While WP1 will specifically focus on standards which are related to manufacturing and components, WP3 will have a broader scope, looking into how to ensure that AWE is being considered in relevant standards frameworks (like IEC 61400).

It must be ensured that these activities do not affect negatively different concepts but that they allow still all AWE architectures to be further developed. Patents may have to be considered.

• Development of new IEC 61400-80 standard (overview standard on AWE)
• Development of IEC-61400-12-80 standard on power performance measurement for AWES
• Potentially start defining other AWE-specific standards, e.g. on grid-connection
• Demonstrate compliance with the standards
• Certification: Will come later but start collecting experience with certification efforts (and maybe other components)
• Investigate would requirements need to be met to fly safely over people.

– Deliverables

D3.1 Recommended practice on airspace integration
D3.2 Recommended practice on siting and permitting
D3.3 Market entry study
D3.4 First approved AWE-specific standards within the IEC 61400

– Milestones

M3.1 WP kick-off meeting
M3.2 Half-term result presentation and workshop
M3.3 Final WP meeting with result presentation