Observing extreme winds and possible renewable energy applications for nextGEMS

A newly formed thematic group focused on renewable energy participated in “The Final Countdown” Hackathon, which took place in Stockholm, Sweden, from March 24th to 28th, 2025. The event brought together climate scientists and private stakeholders from the renewable energy sector, such as Statkraft AS from Norway, Vestas Wind Systems AS from Denmark, and Anemos from Germany. In total, seven participants were part of this group that sought after ways to use nextGEMS data for renewable energy applications.

The renewable energy group focused on extreme winds, among other aspects, by looking at how they will change during the years until 2050. Extreme wind is associated with different weather events and phenomena, such as tropical cyclones or storms. Emilie Byermoen, a team member from the Norwegian firm Starkraft, pointed out their work at the hackathon was based on experimentation, as the participants tried to test possible real-world future scenarios with the models. For instance, by warming the ocean temperatures and observing how that will influence wind patterns in the years ahead — an exercise of special relevance considering the raising temperatures of our planet.

As the stakeholders attempted to discover how to use the nextGEMS in real planning for 20, 30, or 40 years ahead, climate scientists like Lukas Brunner contributed to the group, assisting with data and technical support for the industry representatives. Since nextGEMS data is new, very domain-specific, and large in volume, collaboration between diverse experts was advantageous, according to Brunner. 

For Starkraft representative Emilie Byermoen, “talking with the scientists about the problems they encounter when they work with the nextGEMS data, just chatting to get their opinion on its quality and what it is useful for” was very valuable. “It is something you would not get if you send an email, but rather from informal interactions,” she emphasized.

Indeed, one of the main challenges within the renewable energy team was understanding the data. “There are many specific technical aspects that I didn’t understand, although I am used to work with similar formats, but not this exact one,” Byermoenexplained. Nevertheless, the nextGEMS data seemed to hold great potential. For instance, in the case of wind speeds and rain, looking at extreme levels in the future is specially beneficial to observe at higher resolutions than traditional climate models. 

Despite its complexities, the nextGEMS models offer increased spatial resolution at 10, 5, and even less kilometers, unlike typical models that have 100 or even 200 km-scale resolutions. “I think this is what excites the industry partners about the data: for them 100 km is way too coarse to look at wind speeds or assess wind turbines placements, probably that is not a very helpful scale,” Brunner added.