The main objective of NEWA is the development of a new European Wind Atlas and the improvement of
advanced models towards:
* reduction of uncertainties to less than 3% for flat homogenous
terrains.
* strategic key performance indicator for “Resource assessment and spatial planning” of the
European Industrial Initiative on wind energy.
This is suggested by
The European Wind Energy Technology Platform (TPWind)18 and the overall goal is broken down into
several technological and scientific objectives:
Development of a high-value data bank from a series of wind measurement campaigns
Current tall wind turbines are often placed in remote areas on steep ridges and in forested terrain. This
project aims to provide a detailed and accurate description of the wind flow at selected sites in such
terrain based on well-instrumented meteorological field experiments covering a wide range of
topographical and climatological conditions. The produced data will be publicly available and can be
used by private and public partners to develop models and engineering tools.
Development of methodology and improvement of advanced models for wind farm development, wind turbine design conditions, spatial planning, and policy promotion
This project aims to determining the wind conditions with a very low uncertainty when planning wind
farms. Hence it is necessary: to develop the essential models (based on results from the experimental
campaigns) so that they are tailored to the Wind Atlas and can provide results with accuracy unseen
today. How to link the wind resource information provided by the micro- and meso-scale models is an
intense research area – NEWA aims to establish a new methodology for the coupling between the
two, which will be open-source knowledge contributing to innovative research in wind energy.
Creation and publication of a European Wind atlas (database on wind data, environmental and
other constrains)
The new European Wind Atlas database to be developed will include: wind resources and external
design parameters and their associated uncertainty; the level of predictability for short to long term
forecasting; guidelines and best practices for the use of data, (particularly relevant for micrositing).
The Atlas will cover all EU Member States and a group of Associated Countries, as well as their
exclusive economic zones, and restricted areas (Natura 2000 sites, military areas). The interface of
the NEWA database will include an interactive web-based map.
Verification and estimation of uncertainty
An uncertainty map will calculate the confidence of the Wind Atlas and the intensity to which in situ
measurement must be employed before development of a wind farm. The uncertainty will be verified
by a large number of wind climate data and wind farm production data covering the total area including
offshore areas. The experimental results will also be used especially for theoretical work, developing
new procedures for uncertainty calculations.
Figure 1.2 - Flow chart showing the structure of the new EU Wind Atlas