ROMO Wind Uses Denmark As Springboard To Optimising Wind Farms

22 Feb 2012

ROMO Wind, a Swiss wind technology and service company, establishes a subsidiary in Denmark and acquires a wind measurement technology from The Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

Denmark is the chosen destination for the global operational headquarters of the Swiss/Danish company ROMO Wind that focuses on optimising the technical and operational performance of wind farms in operation.

The company was formed in Switzerland in 2011 by a group of experienced business people and technical experts within the wind turbine industry and shortly after, ROMO established the operational headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark – a global wind power hub.

Denmark is internationally recognized as being a global leader of wind power technology in general and much of the predominant wind turbine designs still being used in the world are developed by Danish wind turbine engineers. Jutland in particular has a very large concentration of international wind power expertise, which ROMO has benefitted and recruited its staff from, says Poul Anker Lübker, Co-CEO of ROMO.

Denmark’s position as a leading wind hub is strengthened

Invest in Denmark, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, helped facilitate ROMO’s establishment in Denmark, which is expected to create 20 jobs in Denmark within the first year. Merete Juhl, Director of Invest in Denmark, names the investment ‘highly valuable’ for the Danish wind power cluster.

ROMO’s presence will strengthen the Danish position as a leading wind nation and a natural destination globally for new Cleantech companies and old ones looking to expand. I am excited to follow the development of ROMO in the years to come, says Merete Juhl.  

ROMO acquires wind turbine technology from DTU

ROMO offers wind farm owners technology and technical assistance to increase their investment returns of wind farms. For that reason, the company has acquired a yaw error detection and correction technology, the Spinner Anemometer, from the Technical University of Denmark. The technology was invented and tested at RISØ, a national laboratory for sustainable energy in Denmark. 

The Spinner Anemometer accurately measures the speed and direction of the wind hitting the wind turbine rotor.  This allows ROMO to measure whether the wind turbine has a yaw error (i.e. whether the wind turbine stands correctly into the wind). Yaw errors result in significant power losses and additional loads on the wind turbine.  Yaw errors are according to ROMO an underestimated problem as it up to now has been difficult and expensive to measure the wind direction in front of the wind turbine.

For the past 15 years the demand for new wind farms has been growing by more than 20 per cent annually. Now the time has come for getting the utmost out of these huge investments by making sure they function absolutely optimally. Denmark because of its history and international wind power leadership has a unique opportunity also to contribute in this field, says Poul Anker Lübker.