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Prospects for generating electricity by large onshore and offshore wind farms

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Prospects for generating electricity by large onshore and offshore wind farms
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The decarbonisation of energy sources requires additional investments in renewable technologies, including the installation of onshore and offshore wind farms. For wind energy to remain competitive, wind farms must continue to provide low-cost power even when covering larger areas. Inside very large wind farms, winds can decrease considerably from their free-stream values to a point where an equilibrium wind speed is reached. The magnitude of this equilibrium wind speed is primarily dependent on the balance between turbine drag force and the downward momentum influx from above the wind farm. We have simulated for neutral atmospheric conditions, the wind speed field inside different wind farms that range from small (25 km2) to very large (105 km2) in three regions with distinct wind speed and roughness conditions. Our results show that the power density of very large wind farms depends on the local free-stream wind speed, the surface characteristics, and the turbine density. In onshore regions with moderate winds the power density of very large wind farms reaches 1 W m−2, whereas in offshore regions with very strong winds it exceeds 3 W m−2. Despite a relatively low power density, onshore regions with moderate winds offer potential locations for very large wind farms. In offshore regions, clusters of smaller wind farms are generally preferable; under very strong winds also very large offshore wind farms become efficient.
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Transcript: English(auto-generated)
In this study we investigate the prospects for generating electricity by very large onshore and offshore wind farms The purpose is to understand how the wake effects reduce the power production in these large wind farms Previous studies by Adams and Keith in 2013 and Miller et al. in 2015 simulated with a regional weather forecast model
the power density, that is the power per unit area, of different hypothetical large wind farms in the Great Plains
These studies concluded that the power density of these very large hypothetical wind farms would be limited to 1 watt per square meter The limit implies that the power density of very large wind farms is only 25% of the power density of current wind farms
We have used the Wharf model to simulate the energy production for wind farms of different size and different turbine spacing for three regions First, let's look at the onshore regions with only moderate winds
In this figure the X-axis is the reference power density, that is the energy production without wakes, but including the wind climate and the turbine power curve The Y-axis is the actual power density, which includes the effect of wakes Here the power density is limited to 1 watt per square meter agreeing with Adams and Keith
Now let's compare this to a region with stronger winds like the North Sea Here the result shows that the power density reaches almost 2 watts per square meter
Thirdly, when winds are very strong, such as in offshore Patagonia, the actual power density can reach up to 3.5 watts per square meter for very large wind farms More relevant for the wind energy community is to discuss the wind farm efficiency
The three lines are for different turbine spacings, narrow, intermediate and wide In the region with moderate winds, very large wind farms with wide spacing remain efficient, that is about 70%
In region B, corresponding to the North Sea climate, strong winds lead to an efficiency above 70% for all types of small wind farms as illustrated by the circle simply because of the strong winds However, the slope of the efficiency with wind farm size is steeper than in the Great Plains
This is due to the lower turbulent levels offshore and therefore less mixing and more persistent wake effects Finally, in offshore regions with very strong winds, smaller wind farms become extremely efficient
Also, very large wind farms remain efficient if the turbine spacing is wide because of the strong winds and higher turbulence enhancing the mixing and decreasing the wake effects To summarize, we find that the power density of very large wind farms is not limited to 1 watt per square meter
In regions with strong winds, it can be more than 3.5 times higher Even for very large wind farms, a wind farm's performance depends on the strength of the winds
and on the turbulence level as well as on the turbine spacing and the wind farm size