scholarly journals Aligned and Staggered Layouts: What is the Impact on Wind Farms Land-Use?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Valotta Rodrigues ◽  
Corinne Lengsfeld
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Output Power ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Continuous Increase ◽  
Onshore Wind ◽  
Wake Interaction ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Blade Element

The use of wind energy has been developing fast over the last years. The global cumulative wind power capacity increased by 10.5% in 2019, most of which comes from onshore wind farms. One of the consequences of this continuous increase is the use of land for onshore wind farms. There are already cases worldwide where lack of well-established plans and strategies have caused delays in projects. The need for efficiently using land for wind farms will be mandatory in the short term. In this work, we present a numerical analysis to evaluate wind farm land-use. By defining the ratio between mechanical output power over an area as a parameter called land-use ratio, this work focused on comparing several cases of aligned and staggered layouts. Mechanical output power was estimated using a validated code based on Blade Element Momentum code, and the wake velocities and wake interaction effects were estimated using a validated wind turbine CFD model. In terms of output power, staggered designs are more efficient than aligned designs. However, the results showed that even though staggered designs produced higher output power, aligned farms with tight lateral spacing could be as efficient as staggered ones in terms of land-use but using fewer turbines. In summary, tightly aligned designs should be a tendency in the future towards efficient use of land in wind farms.

Flow Simulation Around a Rim-Driven Wind Turbine and in Its Wake

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan E. Kaiser ◽  
Svetlana V. Poroseva ◽  
Michael A. Snider ◽  
Rob O. Hovsapian ◽  
Erick Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Flow Simulation ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Sensitivity Study ◽  
Onshore Wind ◽  
Flow Simulations ◽  
Turbine Design ◽  
The Impact

A relatively high free stream wind velocity is required for conventional horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) to generate power. This requirement significantly limits the area of land for viable onshore wind farm locations. To expand a potential for wind power generation and an area suitable for onshore wind farms, new wind turbine designs capable of wind energy harvesting at low wind speeds are currently in development. The aerodynamic characteristics of such wind turbines are notably different from industrial standards. The optimal wind farm layout for such turbines is also unknown. Accurate and reliable simulations of a flow around and behind a new wind turbine design should be conducted prior constructing a wind farm to determine optimal spacing of turbines on the farm. However, computations are expensive even for a flow around a single turbine. The goal of the current study is to determine a set of simulation parameters that allows one to conduct accurate and reliable simulations at a reasonable cost of computations. For this purpose, a sensitivity study on how the parameters variation influences the results of simulations is conducted. Specifically, the impact of a grid refinement, grid stretching, grid cell shape, and a choice of a turbulent model on the results of simulation of a flow around a mid-sized Rim Driven Wind Turbine (U.S. Patent 7399162) and in its near wake is analyzed. This wind turbine design was developed by Keuka Energy LLC. Since industry relies on commercial software for conducting flow simulations, STAR-CCM+ software [1] was used in our study. A choice of a turbulence model was made based on the results from our previous sensitivity study of flow simulations over a rotating disk [2].

scholarly journals Using participatory GIS to examine social perception towards proposed wind energy landscapes

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Lombard
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Participatory Gis ◽  
The Impact

Thirteen onshore wind farm projects, totalling approximately 700 wind turbines, are proposed for the West Coast Region (WCR) of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. Wind energy exploitation possesses the ability to transform what can be classified as natural landscapes into landscapes of power, making the type of landscape on which wind turbines are deployed a prominent factor in its social acceptance or rejection. This paper examines the landscape aesthetics and land use interference of proposed wind farms in the WCR of South Africa through determining if social acceptance or rejection of proposed wind farms is dependent on the residents and visitors scenic and land use valuation of the natural landscape. The results indicate that the visual intrusion of wind turbines is the impact that respondents are least concerned with contrasting with the findings of international literature and further reasons for this anomaly are interrogated against the background of South Africa’s dire electricity needs. The paper concludes that visual impact assessments alone are not sufficient for evaluating landscapes and this paper recommends that participatory geographic information systems (PGIS) be used in addition to existing wind energy landscape assessments.

scholarly journals NEARSHORE WAVE DAMPING DUE TO THE EFFECT ON WINDS IN RESPONSE TO OFFSHORE WIND FARMS

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (33) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Ruben Rodriguez Gandara ◽  
John Harris
Keyword(s):  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Waves ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Offshore Wind Farm ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Wake Interaction ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Made In

Despite the progress that has been made in modeling wind wake interaction between turbines in offshore wind farms, only a handful of studies have quantified the impact of wind turbines or wave farms upon surface waves, and there are even less articles about the wave blockage induced by the whole array of turbines upon wind waves. This hypothetical case study proposes a methodology that takes into account the combined effect of wind wake and wave blockage on wind waves when transforming offshore waves to nearshore in an offshore wind farm scenario.

scholarly journals Wealth of Wind and Visitors: Tourist Industry Attitudes towards Wind Energy Development in Iceland

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 693
Author(s):  
Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir ◽  
Margrét Wendt ◽  
Edita Tverijonaite
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Energy Development ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Land Use Conflicts ◽  
Wind Energy Development

The interest in harnessing wind energy keeps increasing globally. Iceland is considering building its first wind farms, but its landscape and nature are not only a resource for renewable energy production; they are also the main attraction for tourists. As wind turbines affect how the landscape is perceived and experienced, it is foreseeable that the construction of wind farms in Iceland will create land use conflicts between the energy sector and the tourism industry. This study sheds light on the impacts of wind farms on nature-based tourism as perceived by the tourism industry. Based on 47 semi-structured interviews with tourism service providers, it revealed that the impacts were perceived as mostly negative, since wind farms decrease the quality of the natural landscape. Furthermore, the study identified that the tourism industry considered the following as key factors for selecting suitable wind farm sites: the visibility of wind turbines, the number of tourists and tourist attractions in the area, the area’s degree of naturalness and the local need for energy. The research highlights the importance of analysing the various stakeholders’ opinions with the aim of mitigating land use conflicts and socioeconomic issues related to wind energy development.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Correlations in the Power Output of Wind Farms: On the Impact of Atmospheric Stability

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Tobin ◽  
Adam Lavely ◽  
Sven Schmitz ◽  
Leonardo P. Chamorro
Keyword(s):  
Power Output ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Atmospheric Stability ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Temporal Correlations ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Power Variance ◽  
Ambient Turbulence ◽  
The Impact

The dependence of temporal correlations in the power output of wind-turbine pairs on atmospheric stability is explored using theoretical arguments and wind-farm large-eddy simulations. For this purpose, a range of five distinct stability regimes, ranging from weakly stable to moderately convective, were investigated with the same aligned wind-farm layout used among simulations. The coherence spectrum between turbine pairs in each simulation was compared to theoretical predictions. We found with high statistical significance (p < 0.01) that higher levels of atmospheric instability lead to higher coherence between turbines, with wake motions reducing correlations up to 40%. This is attributed to higher dominance of atmospheric motions over wakes in strongly unstable flows. Good agreement resulted with the use of an empirical model for wake-added turbulence to predict the variation of turbine power coherence with ambient turbulence intensity (R 2 = 0.82), though other empirical relations may be applicable. It was shown that improperly accounting for turbine–turbine correlations can substantially impact power variance estimates on the order of a factor of 4.

Community Benefits and UK Offshore Wind Farms: Evolving Convergence in a Divergent Practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150001
Author(s):  
John Glasson
Keyword(s):  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Host Community ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Energy Industry ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Onshore Wind ◽  
Community Benefits ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Renewable Energy Industry

The Offshore Wind sector is a major, dynamic, and rapidly evolving renewable energy industry. This is particularly so in Europe, and especially in the UK. Associated with the growth of the industry has been a growth of interest in community benefits as voluntary measures provided by a developer to the host community. However, in many cases, and for some of the large North Sea distant offshore wind farms, the benefits packages have been disparate and pro rata much smaller than for the well-established onshore wind farm industry. However, there are signs of change. This paper explores the issues of community benefits for the UK offshore sector and evolving practice, as reflected in a macro study of the adoption of community benefits approaches across the industry. This is followed by a more in-depth micro- approach, which explores approaches that have been adopted in three case studies of recent OWF projects — Aberdeen, Beatrice and the Hornsea Array. Whilst there is still much divergence in practice, there are also examples of some convergence, and the development of a more replicable practice. Particularly notable is the adoption of annual community benefits funds, as the key element of community benefits schemes/agreements between developers, local authorities and local communities.

scholarly journals Turbulence coherence and its impact on wind-farm power fluctuations

2018 ◽  
Vol 855 ◽  
pp. 1116-1129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Tobin ◽  
Leonardo P. Chamorro
Keyword(s):  
Power Spectrum ◽  
Atmospheric Turbulence ◽  
Turbulent Diffusion ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Spectral Characteristics ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
Power Fluctuations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Coherence Spectrum

Using a physics-based approach, we infer the impact of the coherence of atmospheric turbulence on the power fluctuations of wind farms. Application of the random-sweeping hypothesis reveals correlations characterized by advection and turbulent diffusion of coherent motions. Those contribute to local peaks and troughs in the power spectrum of the combined units at frequencies corresponding to the advection time between turbines, which diminish in magnitude at high frequencies. Experimental inspection supports the results from the random-sweeping hypothesis in predicting spectral characteristics, although the magnitude of the coherence spectrum appears to be over-predicted. This deviation is attributed to the presence of turbine wakes, and appears to be a function of the turbulence approaching the first turbine in a pair.

scholarly journals Field experiment for open-loop yaw-based wake steering at a commercial onshore wind farm in Italy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart M. Doekemeijer ◽  
Stefan Kern ◽  
Sivateja Maturu ◽  
Stoyan Kanev ◽  
Bastian Salbert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Power Production ◽  
Field Trials ◽  
Open Loop ◽  
Onshore Wind ◽  
Power Maximization ◽  
Energy Gains ◽  
Turbine Arrays

Abstract. The concept of wake steering in wind farms for power maximization has gained significant popularity over the last decade. Recent field trials described in the literature demonstrate the real potential of wake steering on commercial wind farms, but also show that wake steering does not yet consistently lead to an increase in energy production for all inflow conditions. Moreover, a recent survey among experts shows that validation of the concept remains the largest barrier for adoption currently. In response, this article presents the results of a field experiment investigating wake steering in three-turbine arrays at an onshore wind farm in Italy. This experiment was performed as part of the European CL-Windcon project. The measurements show increases in power production of up to 35 % for two-turbine interactions and up to 16 % for three-turbine interactions. However, losses in power production are seen for various regions of wind directions too. In addition to the gains achieved through wake steering at downstream turbines, more interesting to note is that a significant share in gains are from the upstream turbines, showing an increased power production of the yawed turbine itself compared to baseline operation for some wind directions. Furthermore, the surrogate model, while capturing the general trends of wake interaction, lacks the details necessary to accurately represent the measurements. This article supports the notion that further research is necessary, notably on the topics of wind farm modeling and experiment design, before wake steering will lead to consistent energy gains in commercial wind farms.

An ecosystem approach for studying the impact of offshore wind farms: a French case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 1238-1246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Philippe Pezy ◽  
Aurore Raoux ◽  
Jean-Claude Dauvin
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Sampling Strategy ◽  
Ecosystem Approach ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Ecosystem Structure ◽  
Offshore Wind Farms ◽  
Ecopath Model ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The French government is planning the construction of offshore wind farms (OWF) in the next decade (around 2900 MW). Following the European Environmental Impact Assessment Directive 85/337/EEC, several studies have been undertaken to identify the environmental conditions and ecosystem functioning at selected sites prior to OWF construction. However, these studies are generally focused on the conservation of some species and there is no holistic approach for analysing the effects arising from OWF construction and operation. The objective of this article is to promote a sampling strategy to collect data on the different ecosystem compartments of the future Dieppe-Le Tréport (DLT) wind farm site, adopting an ecosystem approach, which could be applied to other OWFs for the implementation of a trophic network analysis. For that purpose, an Ecopath model is used here to derive indices from Ecological Network Analysis (ENA) to investigate the ecosystem structure and functioning. The results show that the ecosystem is most likely detritus-based, associated with a biomass dominated by bivalves, which could act as a dead end for a classic trophic food web since their consumption by top predators is low in comparison to their biomass. The systemic approach developed for DLT OWF site should be applied for other French and European installations of Offshore Wind Farm.

scholarly journals Managing Wind Power Generation via Indexed Semi-Markov Model and Copula

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 4246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guglielmo D’Amico ◽  
Giovanni Masala ◽  
Filippo Petroni ◽  
Robert Adam Sobolewski
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Power Systems ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Output Power ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Spatial Dependencies

Because of the stochastic nature of wind turbines, the output power management of wind power generation (WPG) is a fundamental challenge for the integration of wind energy systems into either power systems or microgrids (i.e., isolated systems consisting of local wind energy systems only) in operation and planning studies. In general, a wind energy system can refer to both one wind farm consisting of a number of wind turbines and a given number of wind farms sited at the area in question. In power systems (microgrid) planning, a WPG should be quantified for the determination of the expected power flows and the analysis of the adequacy of power generation. Concerning this operation, the WPG should be incorporated into an optimal operation decision process, as well as unit commitment and economic dispatch studies. In both cases, the probabilistic investigation of WPG leads to a multivariate uncertainty analysis problem involving correlated random variables (the output power of either wind turbines that constitute wind farm or wind farms sited at the area in question) that follow different distributions. This paper advances a multivariate model of WPG for a wind farm that relies on indexed semi-Markov chains (ISMC) to represent the output power of each wind energy system in question and a copula function to reproduce the spatial dependencies of the energy systems’ output power. The ISMC model can reproduce long-term memory effects in the temporal dependence of turbine power and thus understand, as distinct cases, the plethora of Markovian models. Using copula theory, we incorporate non-linear spatial dependencies into the model that go beyond linear correlations. Some copula functions that are frequently used in applications are taken into consideration in the paper; i.e., Gumbel copula, Gaussian copula, and the t-Student copula with different degrees of freedom. As a case study, we analyze a real dataset of the output powers of six wind turbines that constitute a wind farm situated in Poland. This dataset is compared with the synthetic data generated by the model thorough the calculation of three adequacy indices commonly used at the first hierarchical level of power system reliability studies; i.e., loss of load probability (LOLP), loss of load hours (LOLH) and loss of load expectation (LOLE). The results will be compared with those obtained using other models that are well known in the econometric field; i.e., vector autoregressive models (VAR).

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