Getting Creative at MEGAJOULE – Innovation Branch Explores New Approaches to Mesoscale and CFD

Porto, Portugal, March 03, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Megajoule|Inovação officially started its work in the beginning of this year offering project consultancy mainly in the areas of Mesoscale Modelling and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). Its mission is the continuing development of innovative advanced solutions for the wind energy industry, in order to secure Megajoule’s position as the Portuguese market leader. To achieve this goal, the company has established strong links with University institutions.

Megajoule|Inovação works with mesoscale numerical modelling and its own CFD code developed for wind energy applications in complex sites. As Ricardo Guedes, manager of Megajoule|Inovação explains: “The MEGAJOULE group was always very committed to innovation. We had a technology development core since 2007 which led to our initial developments in CFD and MESOSCALE. With the company’s growth, we felt the need to branch out this very specific activity and call in other partners with great scientific surplus input contribution.”

One of the managers of Megajoule|Inovação is Carlos Silva Santos, holding a PhD in CFD applied to wind energy; he sees the new branch as “a great and exciting platform to develop a suite of advanced solutions that will allow the company to further improve its services and extend them to other renewable energy markets, with commercial as well as scientific benefits”.

In 2007, Megajoule developed and tested a methodology for mapping wind resources in any location on the globe, using the WRF (weather research and forecasting) model. Amongst its projects, Megajoule made the first wind resource map for East Timor in cooperation with Martifer Renewables in 2008, as well as many studies of micrositing wind parks in Central and Eastern Europe using Mesoscale Modelling data. Guilherme Chagas, head of the Mesoscale unit, believes that “the high-quality Mesoscale results produced at Megajoule|Inovação can significantly reduce the time to market of wind development projects. By complementing measurement campaigns with our accurate Mesoscale data, we can also help to reduce the uncertainty associated with short-term measurement campaigns and have a much better picture of the wind behaviour over the lifetime of a wind farm.”

In addition to Mesoscale Modelling, Megajoule|Inovação offers CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) in its portfolio of services, having performed CFD studies of various complex sites for Ventinveste, ENEOP2 and Enercon. CFD codes can estimate the effects of very complex features on wind turbines, such as very steep slopes, escarpments, obstacles and forestation. This detailed CFD wind flow modelling in very complex sites can significantly reduce uncertainty and risk in wind resource assessment. Furthermore, CFD can also be used to select the best sites on a wind farm to conduct wind measurements. Megajoule|Inovação works with its own state-of-the-art CFD code specially developed for wind energy applications in complex terrain. The code has specially developed solutions for forested areas, thermal stability and coupling with Mesoscale Modelling results, which make it one of the most advanced tools in the market.

Apart from the well established services of Mesoscale Modelling and CFD, Megajoule|Inovação plans to expand its activities and develop new services. Megajoule|Inovação is presently studying approaches to forecasting and off-shore wind resource assessment. Manager Ricardo Guedes explains that “we have recently invested in a high performance computer cluster to back our modelling efforts. During this year we intend to map wind resources in countries were MEGAJOULE is most active and provide a strategic advantage to our Clients. We are also further developing our CFD code. We have partnership opportunities for wind forecasting services which we are presently analysing. We will also publish test-cases for our approach to off-shore wind resource assessment throughout this year.”

Megajoule, as the Portuguese market leader in independent renewable energy consultancy, is strongly committed to promote alternative and sustainable energy solutions. The main focus is to deliver expertise in a wide range of technical subjects of wind energy from wind measurements to independent project due diligence. In addition to the creation of Megajoule|Inovação, MEGAJOULE has recently opened offices in Brazil and Poland. Acting globally, MEGAJOULE provides not just wind consultancy but also advice on solar energy and biomass projects. The next possibility to meet and talk with the managing directors of MEGAJOULE and Megajoule|Inovação will be the EWEC 2010 that will take place this April in Warsaw.

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