Researchers have produced a 15% boost to wind generation across a single project using “wake steering” and “total wind farm control” alongside a Zephir lidar unit.
The “industry first” initiative “to demonstrate the possibilities that total wind farm control offers” was led by TUM Wind Energy Institute of Munich and DTU Wind Energy of Denmark.
“Wakes were deflected along a line of wind turbines resulting in an increase of 15% actual power output from the combined wind farm production,” said the partners.
Work on the first ever closed-loop demonstration was led by Professor Carlo L Bottasso, chair of wind energy at the Technical University of Munich. Funding was provided by the German government.
“The test consisted of three turbines and, by yawing two of the upwind turbines to laterally deflect their wakes, the rearmost was able to increase production leading to a net 15% gain in power across the wind farm,” said the researchers.
“The lidars measured the wind speed across the full flow field of the experiment, providing a clear visualisation of the deflected wakes and reduced interferences among the wind turbines,” they added.
Total wind farm control looks at the most effective method of turbine operation to benefit the overall production output from the site, rather than on an individual turbine-by-turbine basis.
Zephir units (pictured) measure wind speed from the ground on from turbine nacelles out to 300 metres “in order to inform wind studies or to characterise a wind turbine’s true potential by reducing yaw misalignment and accurately measuring power curves in free wind flow”.
Image: Zephir
Zephir stars in ‘wake steering’
EXCLUSIVE: Academics achieve 15% boost using 'total wind farm control'
By EBS