Sea – Wind – Power Research at the first German offshore wind farm Alpha Ventus

Foreword by the German Federal Minister of Economics and Energy.- Foreword by the Chair of the Offshore Wind Energy Foundation.- CSI Test Field, CSI Offshore.- Credits.- Metamorphoses of an offshore wind farm.- Who, what, when, why and above all – whereto?.- A thousand sensors, from the blade tip to the bottom of the sea.- A firm hold in rough seas.- Life goes on.- Please avoid tilting.- Uncharted territory on the seabed.- Long-lived despite harsh winds.- Wind in the blades.- The wiser blade knows when to yield.- The "exclusively.- “Get out of my wind”.- Load, load monitoring, and load reduction.- Different than previously assumed.- Sometimes it almost bubbles like a witches’ cauldron.- Artificial intelligence and automatic self-organisation.- Well, how are they running?.- Wind, the wild boy in the power plant family.- The most important environmental project in a German offshore wind farm.- Much hubble-bubble about nothing?.- Like the din in a university canteen.- Out of sight,out of mind?.- When the Nautilus struggles during a dive.- A bit too much salt of the earth.- SOS on Offshore Platform Seven

The Editors

Michael Durstewitz and Bernhard Lange (Fraunhofer IWES)

This book reports on the objectives, methods used and difficulties faced by the RAVE research projects, and presents the results and their significance for the future use of offshore wind energy in a style that is understandable for everyone. Readers are given a comprehensive overview of the current status of offshore wind energy research and the results of the research activities. Offshore wind energy will play a significant role in our future energy supply, yet this development has really only just begun. A large team of experts from the fields of research, industry, public administration and government therefore set themselves the goal of investigating the current and fundamental issues relating to the use of offshore wind energy. They worked on interdisciplinary research projects with the aim of expanding our knowledge and finding application-oriented solutions. Their work has contributed to establishing offshore wind energy as a reliable, sustainable and economical long term source of energy.