Wind Farm Blockage and the Consequences of Neglecting Its Impact on Energy Production

James Bleeg, Mark Purcell, Renzo Ruisi and Elizabeth Traiger
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James Bleeg: DNV GL, Group Technology & Research, Power & Renewables, Bristol BS2 0PS, UK
Mark Purcell: DNV GL, Energy, Project Development, Melbourne 3008, Australia
Renzo Ruisi: DNV GL, Group Technology & Research, Power & Renewables, Bristol BS2 0PS, UK
Elizabeth Traiger: DNV GL, Group Technology & Research, Power & Renewables, Bristol BS2 0PS, UK

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: Measurements taken before and after the commissioning of three wind farms reveal that the wind speeds just upstream of each wind farm decrease relative to locations farther away after the turbines are turned on. At a distance of two rotor diameters upstream, the average derived relative slowdown is 3.4%; at seven to ten rotor diameters upstream, the average slowdown is 1.9%. Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations point to wind-farm-scale blockage as the primary cause of these slowdowns. Blockage effects also cause front row turbines to produce less energy than they each would operating in isolation. Wind energy prediction procedures in use today ignore this effect, resulting in an overprediction bias that pervades the entire wind farm.

Keywords: blockage effects; array efficiency; wind resource assessment; turbine interaction; wake effects; induction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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