Press | Media

Against the unique backdrop of the historic museum ship PEKING at the German Port Museum in Hamburg, international experts gathered for Windship Day 2026, a high-level conference, dedicated to the future of wind-powered commercial shipping. Held as a side event to the world's leading maritime trade fair SMM, the conference hosted by Fraunhofer Workgroup Sustainable Maritime Mobility brought together stakeholders from shipping, shipbuilding, technology, research, finance, logistics, and policy to discuss how wind propulsion can contribute to the decarbonisation of global maritime transport.

For the first time, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES is operating two different profiling Lidar types simultaneously on a Fraunhofer IWES Wind Lidar Buoy. The campaign aims to validate the suitability of both systems for offshore buoy deployment while exploring new measurement concepts to increase data availability and enable complementary measurement strategies. As the first deployment of these next-gen Lidar units on a floating Lidar buoy, it also provides data to evaluate their performance under offshore conditions. It is being carried out as part of the “Wind-Lidar-Boje NG“ research project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE).

As part of the development of the Estonian Liivi Offshore Wind Farm project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES has conducted a site condition monitoring campaign in Liivi Bay, commissioned by Enefit. The Fraunhofer IWES Stage 3+ Wind Lidar Buoy, a Floating Lidar System, was installed together with co-deployed Oceanographic Sensors to collect a year of measurements, e.g., wind profiles, turbulence intensity (TI), wave and current parameters. It was the first commercial campaign to obtain advanced TI measurements from Fraunhofer IWES's high-frequency deterministic motion compensation method. The campaign also involved a land-based Lidar measurement and wind modelling.

Following its certification as Stage 3 in 2024, the Floating Lidar System (FLS) developed, manufactured and operated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, is the first FLS to achieve Stage 3+ under the third version of the OWA Roadmap (2025). This milestone demonstrates refined accuracy and the capacity to deliver viable Turbulence Intensity (TI) measurements.

The Central German Chemical Cluster (MDSV) is one of Germany’s most significant integrated chemical clusters, with closely interconnected material flows between its member sites. A central component of the cluster is the steam cracker in Böhlen, which has been operated by DOW to date. This facility supplies large quantities of basic petrochemical chemicals such as ethylene, propylene, and aromatics. The planned decommissioning of the steam cracker by the end of 2027 presents the MDSV with a profound structural shift.

A new EU-funded project will support Europe’s energy transition by creating more resilient, decarbonised energy systems by advancing hydrogen electrolysers.

Fraunhofer IWES and Fugro Germany Marine GmbH have successfully completed the Geophysical Site Characterization of the N-9.5 area in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the North Sea. The survey was conducted for the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie BSH) during April and May 2025. The campaign included recording both Sub-Bottom Profiler and Ultra-High-Resolution Multi-Channel Seismic data (UHR MCS) for a dense grid of 2,349 kilometers of survey lines. Thus, an area-wide overview of the geological setting is created.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES has launched the “IWES Digital Hub”, a central platform for digital solutions from wind energy research. The web application has been online since mid-January and makes selected software tools from the institute available for industry and research. The aim is to visibly bundle the digital expertise of Fraunhofer IWES, facilitate access to the tools developed, validated, and tested at the institute, and thus make the planning, design, and operation of wind farms more efficient.

Europe's offshore wind energy sector faces complex challenges – from new tender designs and technical developments to site assessments and social acceptance. However, a comprehensive project evaluation system that takes all these points into account is still lacking. The EU project WindSCORE, which has been launched in December 2025, is developing a scientifically based 360° evaluation toolbox within the next three years, that incorporates economic, technical, sustainability-oriented, and social criteria, thereby supporting investors and stakeholders. To this end, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES has joined forces with its partners Fondation Open-C, SINTEF, Statnett, TÜV SÜD, Bio-Littoral, and Equinor. The project is co-funded by PTJ/BMWE, Germany, RPL France and RCN Norway as part of the EU initiative Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP).

The follow-up project H₂HUBᴾˡᵘˢ starts in December 2025. Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Merseburg University of Applied Sciences, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS will offer cross-linked training courses in the field of hydrogen for specialists and managers from the energy sector and industry in Central Germany, as well as for students, pupils and the general public. The interconnected learning alliance will also provide important impulses for the success of the hydrogen economy in the follow-up project.