Gustave Corten

PhD MSc, a Dutch inventor, scientist, and entrepreneur, has been concerned about the world’s energy problems since his teenage years. While studying Nuclear Physics at Delft University, he concluded that nuclear energy is exciting physics, it is not a viable long-term solution for society.  Instead he recognized that truly clean energy sources, such as wind and solar power, represent the future.

This realization led him to pursue a Ph.D. in wind turbine aerodynamics, during which he developed a groundbreaking new insight: wind turbines operating at the Lanchester-Betz limit inherently lose approximately 50% of the converted energy as heat. This phenomenon had not been previously documented in scientific literature. Additionally, during his Ph.D. research, he developed the "stall flag method," the only technique capable of visualizing stall on full-scale wind turbines. This method has been employed dozens of times and has contributed to improving the performance of thousands of wind turbines worldwide.

As the founder of the first research group on Wind Farm Optimization at ECN (Energy Centre of the Netherlands), Corten developed two innovative methods—"Heat and Flux" and "Controlling Wind"—that increased wind farm energy yields by several percentage points. These methods have since become key research topics at multiple institutions.

In 2007, Corten founded CortEnergy, a company dedicated to developing and commercializing revolutionary wind energy technologies.