Arrival of Wessel van der Dejil, ESR11 at CNRS-LEGI

Wessel van der Deijl grew up in one of the flattest countries in the world. So, with his move to Grenoble in the Alps he has only figuratively broadened his horizons... He likes to play tennis, go for a run, and cannot wait to enjoy the snow in the area around Grenoble. Before starting his PhD at Grenoble University, he studied in the Netherlands at the TU Delft, where he did a master in Aerodynamics & Wind Energy. After his studies he worked for 2 years at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in the Wind Energy department. Working in the field of wind energy has always been an ambition for him. It gives a lot of satisfaction to work on something that should make the world a better place. It feels like your work has impact, and that gives a lot of motivation.

When asked about his motivations, Wessel declared:

Ever since finishing my MSc, doing a PhD was always in the back of my head. Therefore, when I learned about the FLOAWER project I knew that it would be the perfect opportunity. The project has a great network of researchers and institutes in the field of wind energy all working towards the same goal. On top of that, floating wind energy is a technology that is on the brink of full-scale commercialization, which is exciting. If we can help floating wind break through, it would open up so much possibilities for countries with deep waters. My own topic however is towards Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs). VAWTs and floating offshore wind could become a very natural synergy because of the lower moments impacted on the support structure. My research will investigate the ability for VAWTs to compete with Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs). The hypothesis is that the wake behind a VAWT recovers much faster than the wake of a HAWT. This will be investigated in a wind tunnel and a scale model. With the wind tunnel measurements, we will develop a wake model that will allow us to investigate VAWTs in a wind farm environment. I am looking forward to the next 3 years. I think it will be an amazing learning experience, together with the entire FLOAWER project consortium. And I am confident that we will make a significant contribution to the development of floating offshore wind.