Services

Welcome to EMD Wind Consultancy’s services.

We take pride in tailoring our services to your specific needs. Following are our key services:

Pre-Construction Analysis

Onshore and offshore wind resource assessment – we have a proven track record at various stages of the project. Our quality is documented through a validation study based on operational data and confirms our predictions.

Our highly trained team of experienced wind analysts and environmental project engineers offer a comprehensive range of technical services to wind farm developers and investors alike. Our technical services applicable during pre-construction include:

• Finding the sweet spots: Site screening and identification, supported by mesoscale mapping
• Balancing costs with benefits: optimised design of measurement campaigns
• Making the most of your site: Layout design for optimised energy and minimised technical risk
• Keeping check on technical risk: Turbine sizing and selection including suitability check based on IEC 61400-1
• Getting to know your revenue: Annual Energy Production (AEP) and Revenue Assessment from preliminary to finance-grade
• Thinking of your neighbours: Environmental impact assessments (noise, flickering, zones of visual influence) and project visualizations

Post-Construction Analysis

To determine the performance of a project against expectations or to assist investors or vendors when assets are being sold – we analyse and assess operating assets using a variety of industry-leading tools and techniques. The benefits are manifold:

• Is the project worth it? The increased precision of the expected long-term average production through analysis of operational data is a key metric of Asset Transfers.
• Less risk, cheaper finance: When re-assessing the expected long-term average production based on operational data the uncertainty is significantly reduced in comparison to pre-construction analysis. The lower risk level is the basis for a potential re-financing.
• Is everything according to plan? The review of the operational key performance metrics like availability are basis for discrepancy investigations.
• What to do? A Pareto analysis of the most relevant errors helps you to ask the right questions to your turbine service provider and is the basis for an optimised service strategy.
• Can we do better? Post-construction analysis allows you to re-visit and improve your processes for pre-construction analysis.

Environmental Impact Assessment

The Environmental Impact Assessment is a crucial part of obtaining planning permission. EMD is your reliable, independent partner for this sensitive part of your planning application. We provide you with technically sound methodologies, well-prepared documentation, and advice on optimal noise mode strategies. Of course, we quantify the impact on the expected yield due all forms of planning-related curtailment.

Our service covers:

• Acoustic assessment
• Shadow flicker studies
• Zones of visual impact
• Visualization (static, animated or virtual fly-throughs)

Site Suitability

The match of the wind turbine’s mechanical strength to the climatic conditions on site are key for a successful project. The risks are manifold: If the chosen WTG is not suitable to the site, this could in the end lead to severe failures before the end of its life time. On the other side, if the chosen WTG is overdesigned with respect to the site conditions, you will be penalised twofold through a high CAPEX and through a production lower than what is possible.

Decades of experience optimising the output by matching the most suitable WTG for your site and consequently lowering the LCoE, makes our consultants your preferred partner when choosing the optimal wind turbine for your site. EMD being expert, both in wind conditions and loads, gives you the safety you need for making the right decision.

We will scrutinise the suitability of the chosen WTGs and their layout through analysis of the following:

• Wind distribution across the site
• Ambient turbulence
• Vertical wind speed gradient across the rotor
• Deviation of the inflow angle from the horizontal plane
• Layout and consequently wake added turbulence
• Extreme winds

Our aeroelastic model is well tested and the methodology is certified by TÜV Süd and follows IEC 61400-1, edition 2, 3, and 4.

Lifetime Extension

A significant number of wind turbines will reach the end of their planned service life in the near future. Lifetime extension is appealing as it can increase returns on investment of existing projects. But the decision on lifetime extension is complex.

EMD’s extensive capabilities in wind flow and aeroelastic modelling allow a cost-optimised evaluation of the site-specific remaining useful lifetime (RUL) with respects to fatigue loads. This service involves:

• Modelling of site-specific flow conditions: wind speed and directional distribution, ambient turbulence, vertical wind speed gradient, inflow angles and wake added turbulence
• Reverse engineering from production data to flow conditions as plausibility check
• Analysis of the site-specific fatigue loads based on IEC 61400-1 ed. 2, 3 or 4 using aeroelastic modelling
• Comparison of site-specific with design fatigue loads on main component level
• Uncertainty analysis of the remaining useful lifetime

Hybrid and Storage Solutions

Having been part of the Danish journey towards a decentralised energy system, we are your ideal partner to evaluate and optimize your mixed energy portfolios.

EMD offers feasibility studies and operational optimization of hybrid energy systems.

Our insight in wind and solar energy, in combination with batteries or other forms of storage, can help you to understand how new energy concepts will perform on in the energy markets. Numerous opportunities for optimization are emerging including:

• Peak shaving
• Optimisation of private wire operation
• Power output smoothing
• Optimisation across energy sectors
• Design and analysis of island operation
• Access to new revenues through ancillary services

Mesoscale Mapping

Wind maps come in various degrees of precision and accuracy. The same way as your requirements vary from situation to situation, our offer for wind mapping is adjusted:

If you need a visual overview for site prospecting, we offer cost-efficient EMD-WRF mesoscale maps using ERA-5 or MERRA 2 boundary data.

If a higher precision is required, microscale effects can be introduced through down-scaling. Processing novel satellite-based map layers as input to meso- and microscale models puts EMD at the forefront of wind resource mapping; it is paying off as the bias can be reduced and the uncertainty decreases!

Even better: Geospatial correction allows to virtually eliminate the bias usually affecting wind resource maps, not by the simplistic application of a correction, but by considering the spatially-distributed added information provided by each ground station.

Training and Support

Sharing knowledge is part of our mission. Therefore, we offer training in various forms:

There is no one-size-fits-all-solution as every site is different. Is CFD required? Which is the best way to long-term correct the on-site data? Which roughness length is appropriate? Which WTG class should I use? Which wake decay constant is most suitable for the site conditions? Is there a benefit in doing time-varying calculations? There are lots of decisions to be made during the process of wind resource assessment. Our experts have up to two decades of experience and are happy to discuss your site and what to do best with the data.

Are you ramping up a new team? Are your options for internal training limited by time and resources? We have helped companies in similar situations. Our training offer is adjusted to your needs and span all options from compact in-house training to working with your team for prolonged periods, either in person or online.

If you simply cannot keep up with your work because of unexpected workload or unexpected lack of resources, let us discuss if we can help you through a sticky period.

Please contact us at emd@emd.dk.