Clir Renewables has developed software to quantify the impact of forestry on wind farms.
The Canadian company said the impact of forestry on inflow conditions is often poorly accounted for when developing projects and can effect the life expectancy of turbines, as well as performance.
“As the wind passes over forestry canopies, wind flow is disturbed, generating more complex conditions such as turbulence and shear, creating slower uneven loads on the blades,” Clir said.
Turbulent air stresses the blades in differing proportions increasing the level of wear and tear across the turbine, it added.
Clir said its software is built on a domain-specific data model that takes account of geospatial considerations, such as forestry, that drive turbine inflow conditions.
“By utilising the geospatial information and atmospheric stability, performance issues at the turbine itself, and in the inflow conditions, can be more accurately parsed out to enable owners, operators and other wind farm stakeholders to understand project underperformance and performance risk for specific items such as forestry,” the company said.
Clir Renewables data scientist Andrew Cameron said: “Many owners are likely experiencing generation losses due to forestry in the area of their wind farms; the degree to which they may be unaware.
“Additionally, the disturbed wind inflow may be increasing turbine loading, reducing their operational life.
“By assessing this early in the wind farm’s operational life many of the costs and losses can be better understood, accounted for and potentially reduced.”
Clir said optimisation recommendations based on data analysis can improve annual energy production by about 5%.