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ForWind – Center for Wind Energy Research has a vacancy in the team »Energy Meteorology« of the research group »Wind Energy Systems« at the Institute of Physics of the University of Oldenburg starting as soon as possible for a

PhD position / Research Assistant (f/m/d)
Multiscale Modelling of Wind Energy Wake Effects in Northern Europe
(E13 TV-L, 75%)

In European countries around the North Sea the future energy system will rely on large offshore wind farm clusters with hundreds of wind turbines. Adjacent wind farm clusters will interact with each other. The energy yield of downstream wind plants will depend on the dynamic characteristics of the wake of upstream clusters. Accurate weather predictions will require considering such wind farms in operational weather forecasting.

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Wind energy research at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg has gained internationalrecognition by its integration into ForWind – Center for Wind Energy Research of the Universities of Oldenburg, Hannover and Bremen and the national Wind Energy Research Alliance of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES) and ForWind.
At ForWind, we maintain and value collaboration between our research groups and partner institutions such as the European Academy of Wind Energy members. In Oldenburg, our 50 researchers from physics, meteorology and engineering are collaborating at the »Research Laboratory for Turbulence and Wind Energy Systems« centred on wind physics. Our mission is to develop an improved understanding of atmospheric and wind power plant flow physics required to serve the global demand for clean and affordable electricity. Therefore, we conduct laboratory experiments, free-field measurements and HPC-based numerical simulations. The main topics include the description and modelling of wind turbulence, the analysis of interactions of turbulent atmospheric wind flow and wind energy systems, as well as control of wind turbines and wind farms. The covered scales range from small-scale turbulence up to meteorological phenomena. Our research facilities comprise three turbulent wind tunnels, various equipment for free-field measurements at on- and offshore wind farms and a high-performance computing cluster. Almost all our projects combine analyses at more than one of these infrastructures.

Your tasks

Your work will be an integral contribution to a joint project with partners from industry and research institutes in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. You will work closely with the National Weather Service to develop and implement a wind farm parameterization in their operational weather forecast model. A unique wind farm parameterization for higher-order turbulence closure schemes will be developed. The development will be based on data from your cutting edge large-eddy simulations. A comparison with measured data will facilitate
quality control and uncertainty assessment of the modelling.

Among others, your tasks will comprise:
• Large-eddy simulations of several kinds of marine atmospheric boundary layers and their interaction with large offshore wind farm clusters,
• Validation of the large-eddy simulation model in benchmarks,
• Derivation of budgets of higher-order turbulence moments from the large-eddy
simulations,
• Derivation of a new wind farm parameterization for mesoscale models applying a
higher-order turbulence closure scheme,
• Validation of the mesoscale model applying the new wind farm parameterization by comparison with LES.

Your profile

Requirements for employment include:
• a qualifying university master’s degree in Physical Sciences, Meteorology,
Engineering Physics, Mechanical Engineering with focus on fluid dynamics or Wind
Energy
• profound knowledge in numerical simulations of atmospheric flows,
• very good skills in the statistical analysis of large amounts of data,
• high motivation and ability to jointly work on applied research topics,
• aptitude and willingness to pursue a PhD,
• very good English skills.

Desired (but not mandatory) requirements are:
• experience in using the PALM software for the simulation of atmospheric flows,
• experience in mesoscale simulations,
• experience abroad of several months during school, study period or employment after graduation,
• and good German skills.

Job offer

We offer you the opportunity to develop your scientific career in a young and lively academic environment. You will be working in the WindLab – one of the university's most modern office and lab spaces – while you will also have the opportunity to do flexible and mobile work.

We offer you the opportunity to develop your scientific career in a young and lively academic environment. You will be working in the WindLab – one of the university's most modern office and lab spaces – while you will also have the opportunity to do flexible and mobile work.

Your pathway towards the PhD is actively supported by, e.g.,
• multidisciplinary cooperation with other researchers at ForWind and Fraunhofer IWES in Oldenburg,
• optional secondment at an international research institute,
• development of personal, scientific, and teaching skills through an individual training programme and selected teaching tasks,
• opportunities to present scientific results at international conferences and through peer-reviewed publications to extend your specific network,
• structured supervision of PhD process.

The employment is initially limited to three years with an intention to further prolong up to four years to facilitate a PhD. The payment is based on the collective agreement for the public service in the German federal states, TV-L E13, for a 75% position.

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Contact
For questions regarding this job opportunity, please contact Dr. Gerald Steinfeld at
+49(0)441/798-5073 or preferably by email at gerald.steinfeld@uni-oldenburg.de. Further information on ForWind and our research group, respectively, is available at and .

Please submit your application preferably electronically as one PDF file by 08.01.2025 to wesys.bewerbungen@uni-oldenburg.de. Please refer to the job number #ACA111 in the subject line.

The PDF file must include either in English or German
• A letter motivating your application
• Curriculum vitae
• Grade transcripts and BSc/MSc diploma
• Employment references
• A one-page research statement. You are requested to present your notion of the field of the advertised PhD topic and some initial ideas for tackling it.

A second PDF file containing your Master Thesis or relevant research papers (if available) is an optional attachment.

We are looking forward to receiving your application.