FLOW, AIRE and MERIDIONAL Unite to Advance Wind Energy Performance Tools at WindEurope 2026

On 21 April 2026, FLOW, AIRE, and MERIDIONAL came together at the WindEurope Annual Event 2026 in Madrid for a joint stakeholder workshop, "Advancing Wind Energy Performance: Tools, Models and Validation," held at IFEMA Madrid.

The workshop brought together researchers, industry representatives, technology developers, and other stakeholders from across the wind energy sector to explore innovative tools, advanced modelling approaches, and validation strategies supporting wind energy performance. With all three projects approaching the completion of their respective Horizon Europe research programmes, the session was framed as an opportunity to present and discuss the key results and outputs achieved over their lifetime, and to reflect on what these results mean for the industry going forward.

The session opened with an introduction to the three projects and their shared contribution to improving wind energy modelling, data use, and performance assessment. Stefan Ivanel, from Uppsala University, presented FLOW's main activities, expected impact, and key research developments, giving participants an overview of how the project's work on atmospheric flow physics and load performance prediction fits into the broader picture of large-scale, high-altitude wind energy systems. Antoine Mathieu, from EDF, followed with an update on the tools promoted and developed under the FLOW project, illustrating how these tools are intended to support more accurate and reliable performance assessments in the field. Mark Zagar then shared the large-scale data validation plans being conducted by Vestas under Work Package 5, offering a look into how FLOW's models are being tested and validated against real operational data.

Beyond the individual project presentations, the workshop placed strong emphasis on WindLab, the collaborative knowledge and data hub developed jointly by FLOW, AIRE, and MERIDIONAL. The agenda featured a WindLab showcase alongside a models benchmarking session, allowing participants to see firsthand how tools and datasets from the three projects can be compared and used together. Project test cases were also presented, along with an overview of the AIRE Toolchain, giving attendees a broader and more practical view of the range of solutions being developed across the three consortia. Together, these elements offered participants concrete demonstrations rather than purely conceptual presentations, helping to ground the discussion in real applications, model benchmarking exercises, and large-scale validation activities.

Holding a joint workshop rather than three separate sessions proved valuable for several reasons. It allowed the three projects to validate the synergies built up between them over three years of parallel research, showing how their individual contributions on modelling, data use, and performance assessment reinforce one another rather than duplicating effort. It also gave stakeholders a single, coherent entry point into a body of work that spans multiple research strands, making it easier to see how tools developed under FLOW, AIRE, and MERIDIONAL can complement each other in practice. For the projects themselves, the collaborative format created a natural setting to collect feedback directly from industry and research stakeholders on the proposed solutions, and to discuss how these tools and models can be implemented, exploited, and transferred effectively to the market and to industry more broadly.

The audience reflected the breadth of the wind energy value chain, from researchers and academics working on wind farm modelling and atmospheric physics to industry representatives and technology developers seeking validated tools and data resources. This mix of backgrounds shaped a genuinely two-way exchange, with presentations followed by an open discussion where participants could ask questions and weigh in on how the projects' outputs could be taken up more widely across the sector.

The workshop closed on this note, reinforcing a theme that ran throughout the afternoon: the importance of collaboration between research, industry, and stakeholders in advancing the next generation of wind energy technologies. As FLOW, AIRE, and MERIDIONAL move toward the conclusion of their respective projects, sessions like this one mark an important step in turning combined research into tools and validated approaches the industry can put to use.