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Meridional is a research proposal by a consortium of academia and industry, led by TU Delft (The Netherlands). The proposal was submitted to the EU Horizon Europe call on physics and aerodynamics of atmospheric flow of wind for power production.
The proposal was awarded by the EU and the partners are now in the preparation phase, expecting the start of the programme in October of this year. The goal of the project is to achieve a better understanding of the unsteady inflow conditions at altitudes above the first layer of air above the ground (the surface layer). The aim is to develop a tool chain to efficiently and effectively assess the performance and reliability of airborne wind energy systems (AWES) and conventional wind turbines. Meridional’s consortium consists of a total of 12 partners, including 5 technical universities (TUDelft as the coordinator and 4 others from Denmark, Italy, and Germany) and 3 airborne wind energy companies (Kitepower, Kitenergy, and Kitekraft). The grant’s total budget is € 6.7 million. The project is 100% funded over a total runtime of 4 years.