esearchers and experts from , the Netherlands, and Denmark are working on methods to improve the accuracy of wake effect forecasts in offshore wind farms in the North Sea, where European coastal countries aim to install at least 260 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050. 4h655z

The goal of the research is to enable optimized maritime spatial planning and to provide reliable energy production forecasts, especially given the high density of offshore wind farms planned in several regions.

Wake effects caused by large clusters of offshore wind farms are of great importance when calculating energy production. Current models often provide only inaccurate representations of these effects. The project partners aim to reduce forecast inaccuracies from the current 20–30% down to 10%, through the improvement and validation of existing methods. This increased precision will enhance transnational maritime spatial planning and make energy yield forecasts more reliable.

The EuroWindWakes project team is laying a crucial foundation for harnessing the huge potential of offshore wind energy. It is also an important factor at the commercial level, as uncertainty regarding turbine and wind farm performance significantly impacts the profitability of offshore installations.

In this trinational research project, EuroWindWakes, partners from , the Netherlands, and Denmark seek to significantly improve prediction accuracy to optimize maritime spatial planning and enable more reliable energy production forecasting.

To achieve this, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES) is collaborating with the Technical University of Denmark, Delft University of Technology, the German Meteorological Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst), the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Pondera Consult, EMD International, DHI, and associated partners including RWE, BP, EnBW, and TotalEnergies. The research project began in late 2024 and is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), Denmark’s Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program (EUDP), and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) as part of the EU’s Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP) initiative.

According to Fraunhofer IWES, due to the scale of deployment, wake effects will become highly significant. The area downstream of the rotor is called the wake. As the airflow loses momentum, this area experiences reduced wind speeds and higher turbulence due to mixing with the undisturbed flow. This significantly reduces the electricity production of wind farms affected by wake effects. The EuroWindWakes project team is developing models to help minimize efficiency losses in offshore wind turbines through optimized wind farm planning.

Jake Badger, Head of Resource Assessment and Meteorology at DTU Wind and Energy Systems, noted that "the fact that the collaborating countries are North Sea neighbors opens up opportunities to work effectively on the cross-border impacts of offshore wind farms and to engage stakeholders, including authorities, to use our methods and results for long-term planning."

Anja Schönnebeck, national project coordinator at Pondera Consult, added that "the prediction of wake effects from neighboring wind farms on a given offshore wind farm's performance varies significantly depending on the wake model used. This variation introduces major uncertainty in the financial planning of offshore wind farms. The EuroWindWakes project aims to reduce this uncertainty by improving the reliability of performance predictions."

The project will run for a total of three years.