Wind Farm Layout Upgrade Optimization

Mamdouh Abdulrahman and David Wood
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Mamdouh Abdulrahman: Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
David Wood: Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 13, 1-25

Abstract: The problem of optimally increasing the size of existing wind farms has not been investigated in the literature. In this paper, a proposed wind farm layout upgrade by adding different (in type and/or hub height) commercial turbines to an existing farm is introduced and optimized. Three proposed upgraded layouts are considered: internal grid, external grid, and external unstructured. The manufacturer’s power curve and a general representation for thrust coefficient are used in power and wake calculations, respectively. A simple field-based model is implemented and both offshore and onshore conditions are considered. A genetic algorithm is used for the optimization. The trade-off range between energy production and cost of energy is investigated by considering three objective functions, individually: (1) annual energy production; (2) cost of added energy; and (3) cost of total energy. The proposed upgraded layouts are determined for the Horns Rev 1 offshore wind farm. The results showed a wide range of suitable upgrade scenarios depending on the upgraded layout and the optimization objective. The farm energy production is increased by 190–336% with a corresponding increase in the total cost by 147–720%. The external upgrade offers more energy production but with much more cost. The unstructured layouts showed clear superiority over the grid ones by providing much lower cost of energy.

Keywords: wind farm layout; upgrade; optimization; genetic algorithm; commercial turbine selection; hub height variation (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: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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