Improving the Wind Farm efficiency by simple means

Wake effects in wind farms are a major source of power production losses and fatigue loads on the rotors. It has been demonstrated that in large wind farms the only source of kinetic energy to balance that extracted by the turbines is the vertical transport of the free-stream flow kinetic energy from above the wind-turbine canopy. This chapter...

Design of a Simple Wake Model for the Wind Farm Layout Optimization Considering the Wake Meandering Effect

The design of the optimal layout of the wind farm is crucial to minimize the cost of energy produced by the wind farm. This requires an accurate wake model to simulate the wake effect on the annual energy yield of the wind farm. On the other hand, the wake model must be very simple in order to limit the duration of the layout optimisation...

Engineering an Optimal Wind Farm

The project covers creation of a framework for optimisation of wind farm layouts. The optimisation is done with an objective of maximising the Net Present Value of the farm. With that aim, both power production and the fatigue driven component degradation are considered. The work is split in two main parts. First, in order to circumvent the use...

Performance optimization of wind turbine rotors for wind farm operation

Due to fierce competition on the electricity market, many wind energy related research projects are currently aimed at cost reduction. In order to establish cost reduction, more and more wind turbines are being clustered in (offshore) wind farms. Major drawback of wind farms however, is the energy production loss due to aerodynamic wake...

Offshore wind farm optimization, investigation of unconventional and random layouts

This project aims at investigating whether or not unconventional and/or random offshore wind farm layouts lead to better performance of the farm. The determination of each solution is based on the estimated value of the Levelized Production Cost, thus the cost per produced unit of energy (i.e., ecents/kWh). For the purposes of the current...

Development of a design tool for offshore wind farm layout optimization: Consideration of wake effects and electrical infrastructure costs and losses

A design tool has been developed with the aim of helping in the wind farm design process. The tool is able to handle rectangular layouts with any number of turbines. Wind farm power, as well as wind and site conditions can be specified by the user. The main tool models are described and the developing steps have been detailed. Results of tool...