Project Summary

Wind energy has become increasingly important as a clean and renewable alternative to fossil fuels in the energy portfolios of both Europe and Brazil. At almost every stage in wind energy exploitation ranging from wind turbine design, wind resource assessment to wind farm layout and operations, the application of HPC is a must. The goal of HPCWE is to address the following key open challenges in applying HPC on wind energy: (i) efficient use of HPC resources in wind turbine simulations, via the development and implementation of novel algorithms. This leads to the development of methods for verification, validation, uncertainty quantification (VVUQ) and in-situ scientific data interpretation; (ii) accurate integration of meso-scale atmosphere dynamics and micro-scale wind turbine flow simulations, as this interface is the key for accurate wind energy simulations. In HPCWE a novel scale integration approach will be applied and tested through test cases in a Brazil wind farm; and (iii) adjoint-based optimization, which implies large I/O consumption as well as storing data on large-scale file systems. HPCWE research aims at alleviating the bottlenecks caused by data transfer from memory to disk.

The HPCWE consortium consists of 13 partners representing the top academic institutes, HPC centres and industries in Europe and Brazil. By exploring this collaboration, this consortium will develop novel algorithms, implement them in state-of-the-art codes and test the codes in academic and industrial cases to benefit the wind energy industry and research in both Europe and Brazil.

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High-performance computing (HPC) refers to systems with extremely high computational capabilities. They involve hundreds of thousands of processors working in parallel to analyse billions of pieces of data in real-time. Today’s most powerful systems can perform calculations thousands of times faster than a normal desktop computer. The European Union has recognised high performance computing as a key component of the digital single market strategy.

High-performance computer simulations provide important insights to predict the behaviour of processes and products in many areas of science and engineering. It provides important tools, e.g. to the automotive industry, aerospace, biotechnology, environmental science science including climate research, medical technology, intelligent manufacturing, engineering among many others. The fastest computers in the world today are already incredibly powerful. Nevertheless, many scientific and industrial challenges demand still more computing power, for instance bioscience, engineering or material design.

Over the last decades, the availability and usability of HPC systems has become one of the determining factors for the progress of science and a strategic resource for Europe’s future. The accuracy of the analysis, the quality of the results and the potential of national and international collaborations in science and industry are more and more depending on the available computing infrastructure. Mastering advanced computing technologies from hardware to software has become essential for innovation, growth and jobs.