RWE and DNV have agreed on a scope to conduct a large study assessing the impact of the wake effect in offshore wind.
The investigation asks DNV to validate the effects that RWE experts have identified. RWE models predict that large clusters of offshore wind farms could have far-reaching wind-shadowing effects, impacting wind yield of future offshore farms.
RWE reviews its methodology and approaches to wind energy yield modelling on an ongoing basis and has developed a good understanding of these long-distance “cluster wake effects”. The preliminary model from RWE forecasts that these can have an impact up to 200km or more and cause the energy yield in the wake areas to be reduced –in certain cases by over 10%. This could have possible implications on future offshore development projects in Europe, for example in the German North Sea.
RWE experts will now hand their data to the independent energy expert and assurance provider DNV to validate the initial modelling results. DNV will independently carry out analysis of RWE data and perform CFD modelling to review the RWE findings. The study aims to provide first results of DNV in April to reflect on the potential losses.