The wind is on at DTU’s new wind tunnel

On April 10th 2018, the new National Wind Tunnel at DTU Risø Campus will be inaugurated. Researchers from DTU Wind Energy are therefore testing the wind tunnel in order to make sure, that everything works accordingly to the plan. Christian Bak, who is responsible for the Poul la Cour Tunnel says, that the first tests have been positive:

“We have tested the flow through the tunnel several times, and each time the results have been positive. Actually, the results have been beyond what we hoped for. The wind tunnel is designed for wind speed up to 105 metres per second. We have, however, tested speed limits far beyond that marker, and it has been a great success. It seems, that the tunnel is much more effective than we anticipated, and we can, due to that, use a lot less energy in order to run the wind tunnel,” he says.

Can be used in September

Even though the wind tunnel will be inaugurated on April 10th 2018, it will not be in use straight away. The expected deadline is September 1st 2018, where the Poul la Cour Tunnel will be ready for use by the industry.

“We need to test everything in the tunnel before we can open it up for i.e. business partners. We need a few months to get to know the wind tunnel and how it works,” Christian Bak finishes by saying.