The Danish research environment is internationally recognized as being in the forefront of wind energy technology, and The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has provided a major part of the wind energy research in Denmark with Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy as a major contributor.

The department is composed of the former Wind Energy Division at Risø, two groups from DTU Mechanical Engineering whose core activities are fluid dynamics and composite mechanics, and two groups from the Risø DTU Materials Research Division where the research is focused on composite materials and metals.

DTU Wind Energy has more than 230 staff members, including 150 academic staff members and 60 PhD students. Research is conducted within 9 research programmes which are organized under three main topics: Wind energy systems, Wind turbine technology and Basis for wind energy.

DTU Wind energy has three wind turbine test sites in Denmark. The test sites are situated at (1) Campus Risø, Roskilde, (2) Høvsøre Test site for Large Wind Turbines at Lemvig and (3) Test Center Østerild at Thisted. Test Center Østerild allows for erection of wind turbines of up to 250 meters. The geographical location and facilities allow for the wind turbine industry, in collaboration with DTU and other research institutions, to carry out research, development and test of prototype wind turbines and new wind turbine technology.