20 February 2025

Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences is actively committed to sustainability and the use of renewable energies. A visible sign of this has been the wind turbine on campus for around 20 years, which generates renewable electricity and feeds it into the campus network. Due to a technical defect, the cause of which could not be determined during an initial investigation, the turbine has now been dismantled in order to undergo thorough maintenance and repairs.

Over the years, the wind turbine has provided valuable experience in the use of renewable energy on campus. However, the current location is not ideal: the wind conditions are not ideal and, in addition, vibrations from heavy goods vehicles on the neighbouring main road cause recurring disruptions.

Despite repeated adjustments, no permanent solution to this problem could be found. In addition, the turbine's rotor blades are damaged, which leads to an imbalance and puts additional strain on the gearbox. In order to meet these challenges in the long term, it is planned to overhaul the wind turbine or, if necessary, install a new turbine.

The dismantling of the turbine is part of the KLIMA-N research project ("KLIMA network for more sustainability in Thuringia"), more specifically the sub-project "Climate-friendly campus - energy and operation" at Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences. Under the leadership of Dr Pascal Leibbrandt, a group of students will accompany the repair of the wind turbine in the coming semester.

The KLIMA-N research project is dedicated to the sustainable transformation of university campuses in Thuringia. A systematic inventory of energy and resource flows forms the basis for efficiency, consistency and sufficiency measures as well as structural adaptations to climate change. Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences is working closely with its cooperation partners - the University of Erfurt, Ilmenau University of Technology and Erfurt University of Applied Sciences. The aim is to develop guidelines for climate-friendly campus operations based on experience and best practices.

Companies, private individuals or other research institutions that would like to participate in the repair or use the wind turbine for their own research projects are cordially invited to contact the Institute for Regenerative Energy Technology (in.RET) at Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences.

The in.RET conducts basic and application-orientated energy research in the field of renewable energy technology. In addition to the further development and optimisation of technologies for the use of renewable energies, an important focus of work will be the system integration of these energies, i.e. the question of how renewable energies can be combined with each other in a meaningful way and integrated into the existing supply structures in the heat and electricity market. Numerous interdisciplinary issues from the fields of energy technology, measurement and control technology and economics need to be addressed. The focus of research has developed from individual modules to entire energy systems.