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Faroe Islands

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations4
System facts17
Sources reviewed6
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

The recovered Faroe Islands record corresponds to Nólsoyar Orkufelag's 220 kW stand-alone wind-to-heat microgrid on Nólsoy, not the multi-island SEV electric system. A reused Wind World induction-generator turbine supplies resistive heating loads and was designed to buffer variable wind as hot water. The most detailed operating update found, from June 2020, says the volunteer-run project was still manually controlled, turned only intermittently, and served eight houses rather than the 23-house first phase or roughly 35-house technical potential. No reviewed source supports the recovered Schneider Electric attribution.

Research status
Installed in 2012 but only intermittently operating as of the latest detailed local update in June 2020, when eight houses were connected and control remained manual. The Faroese regulator still publishes the project's 2011 permit, and a commercial wind database labeled the turbine operational in May 2026, but neither establishes recent output or confirms that the planned district-heating tank and full automation were completed. A separate 2025 Nólsoy Energy virtual-power-plant pilot uses household solar, heat pumps, and EV batteries; it is not evidence that the older wind-heating system was upgraded.
Historical classification
Island
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
61.89264, -6.91181
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Faroe Islands?

4 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Aalborg University

Affiliation of the researchers who documented the self-excited induction-generator controls and modeled thermal-storage performance. [3]

Organization

Nólsoyar Orkufelag

Community company that applied for the permit, owns the turbine, and was still developing and manually operating the heating project with volunteer labor in 2020. [2][4][5]

Organization

Schneider Electric

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Wind World

Original manufacturer of the reused W2500 wind turbine installed for the project. [2][3]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Wind
220 [1]
Wind turbine
One Wind World W2500 rated 220 kW, with a 25 m rotor and 30 m tower; three-phase 690 V, 50 Hz squirrel-cage induction generator [2][3][4]
Heating reach
Wind and household-demand measurements indicated enough annual energy for about 35 houses; the permit described 23 nearby homes in the first district-heating phase, while only eight were connected in June 2020 [2][4]
Central hot-water storage
The 2011 permit described a planned 48 m³ tank; the 2020 retrospective described the project design as 69 m³. Public evidence reviewed does not establish which size, if either, was completed. [2][4]
Modeled annual wind energy
Approximately 870 MWh/year based on three years of wind data; this was a pre-operating estimate, not verified annual production [3]
Modeled household thermal storage
100 kWh per house, equivalent to about 2,000 L of water cycled from 55°C to 95°C, produced an estimated 85% wind-heat share with about 15% curtailment and 15% backup heat in simulation [3]
Backup heat in permitted design
Approximately 100 kW gas-oil boiler, with the permit requiring any installation to remain below 120 kW unless reapproved [2]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Wind turbine

Wind World — W2500

A reused early-1990s, stall-regulated Danish turbine with a 220 kW squirrel-cage induction generator, repurposed after roughly two decades of operation in Denmark. [3][2]

02

Frequency and voltage controls

Model not publicly disclosed

The research configuration used an Arduino-class microcontroller to switch resistive heater banks for frequency control and capacitor banks for reactive power and voltage control. The paper reports improving the adjustment interval from about 260 ms to 62 ms and implementing PID loops; a commercial product model is not named. [3]

03

Thermal storage and loads

Model not publicly disclosed

Electric immersion heaters convert otherwise variable stand-alone wind output to hot-water heat. The permit contemplated a central tank, district-heating pipes, smaller household tanks, and an oil-fired backup boiler; completion of the full configuration is not verified. [2][4]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Storage

    Thermal Storage [1]

  • Generation

    Wind, diesel, storage [1]

  • Electrical architecture

    The project deliberately operated the turbine as a self-excited, stand-alone electrical microgrid because connecting it to the local utility grid proved difficult. It is an electricity-to-heat system, not Nólsoy's normal electric supply, which remains a separate utility network. [3][4]

  • Control method

    Frequency is regulated by continually matching switched heater load to wind generation; voltage is regulated by switched capacitors supplying the induction generator's magnetizing reactive power. High-wind self-excitation during startup was a documented control challenge. [3]

  • Deployment shortfall

    The permitted design anticipated a 23-home first phase and later public buildings and additional homes. In 2020, the operator said only eight homes were connected, operation was manual and intermittent, technical work remained, and volunteers were completing it in their spare time. [2][4]

  • Evidence boundary

    The 85% wind-heat share, 15% curtailment, 15% backup requirement, and 870 MWh/year are model results. No public measured annual production, fuel savings, availability, or post-2020 connection count was located. The May 2026 commercial database status should therefore not be treated as proof of reliable operation. [3][4][5]

  • Separate later activity

    Nólsoy Energy introduced a community virtual-power-plant pilot in 2025 using household solar, heat pumps, bidirectional EV charging, and grid transactions. The announcement does not connect that pilot to the W2500 wind-heating microgrid, so its assets are not added to this project's capacity. [6]

Provenance

6 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2020-07-06

  2. [2]
    Environmental permit for Sp/F Nólsoyar Orkufelag's wind turbine

    Umhvørvisstovan (Environment Agency of the Faroe Islands) · Primary source

  3. [3]
    Faroe Islands Wind-Powered Space Heating Microgrid Using Self-Excited 220-kW Induction Generator

    IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy / Aalborg University · Primary source

  4. [4]
  5. [5]
    Nólsoy (Faroe Islands) wind-farm data sheet

    The Wind Power · Secondary research

  6. [6]
    Nólsoy Energy's cVPP Pilot in the Faroe Islands

    COPOWER / Interreg Northern Periphery and Arctic · Primary source

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