IEA Task 19 - Wind Energy in cold climates

In the wind energy industry, cold climate refers to conditions favorable for the formation of ice or
temperatures below the operational limits of standard wind turbines. Since conditions can vary significantly
from site to site, it is difficult to define a ‘typical’ cold climate site. Some sites may experience sub‐zero
temperatures but no atmospheric icing; other sites may have heavy icing on a regular basis, with similar (or
higher) temperatures. Wind turbines operating under icing conditions will suffer from production losses, icethrow,
and increased loads that may exceed the design limits of standard wind turbines, increasing the risk
of safety and mechanical failure, and financial loss. To address these issues, turbine manufacturers are
developing technical solutions for low temperatures, and de‐icing systems for turbine blades are now on the
market.

Recent improvements in technology have improved the economics of developing cold climate
projects, while the cost of electricity from offshore wind farms has remained relatively high. This means that
incentives are strong for further development of cold climate wind energy technology and subsequent wind
farms. The objective of this project is to contribute to the development of new cold climate technology and
stimulate new applications of Danish wind technology. IEA Task 19 is an international network focused on
cold climate issues. Their work will form the basis for new international standards in this area through the
publication of recommendations and reports, increasing the competitiveness of wind and accelerating the
replacement of fossil fuels.

DTU has represented Denmark in IEA Task 19 since 2013. In the past 3 year period, DTU has contributed to
the IEA Task work on standardization at the IEC, the release of version 3.0 of the T19IceLoss code, and to
several of the IEA Task 19 reports that were released during the period. In addition, thanks to collaborations
with IEA Task 19, there have been 9 masters projects that included work on icing issues. During this time DTU
has also had four icing related projects, one working with Vestas on a commercial system for use in their
wind farm siting team, one collaborating with Korea working on the ice shapes and aerodynamic
characteristics depending on surface roughness, a collaboration in a PhD project with Coventry University
(UK) in developing a decision support system for anti‐icing and de‐icing strategies for wind turbines and wind
farms, and finally, one in Computational Fluid Dynamics modelling of ice shapes on rotating structures which
is on‐going H.C Ørsted COFUDN post‐doc project.

The work is organized in 5 work‐packages (WPs): WP0: Coordination; WP1: Software release; WP2:
Processing/analyzing of data; WP3: National dissemination; and WP4: Contribution to IEA
reporting.

Throughout various projects, DTU Wind Energy has developed several tools that are important for cold
climate wind energy. In the first work‐package, we will work with the other Task 19 partners to test and verify
several of these codes, ultimately releasing them as open source tools for everyone to use. This follows on
the success of the Task 19 ice loss code, which was released in 2015 and currently has more than 140
(registered) users.

The second work‐package consists of four tasks covering main research topics for IEA Task 19: validation of
the ice throw tool, enhancement of pre‐construction assessments, development of wind turbine icing
simulation tool, and analyzing scaling effects of ice. The results will be presented at six Task 19 workshops
and form the basis for published guidelines and reports.

The tools, models, and general experience about cold climate wind energy will be disseminated to the Danish
wind industry, in WP3, and WP4 will include work on reporting and updating the best practices and available
technologies.