Challenges and Insights from the New European Wind Atlas Project

An overview of the challenges being addressed by the New European Wind Atlas (NEWA) consortium is presented together with the most important insights from the research activities carried out during the first half of the project. This €14-million EU project aims at producing a more reliable characterization of wind resources across Europe through a high resolution wind atlas and an experimental database that will lead to a significant reduction of uncertainties. Experimental campaigns of unprecedented scale and coverage have been conducted to map a wide range of terrain and wind conditions. This is the basis for the development of a model chain that blends relevant atmospheric scales from mesoscale to microscale. A seamless database of wind characteristics and associated uncertainties across Europe at a horizontal resolution of 100 m and representative for a 30-year period will be produced following a probabilistic wind atlas approach.