Operation over complex terrains & atmospheric icing events: wind energy critical issues related to security of supply & wind-project evaluation

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Wind Energy has gained significant interest in the past years among electricity producers and wind turbines are expected to be installed at a high pace for years to come. However, fewer ideal sites are available for these new installations. With construction of wind projects in sites with complex topographies, the risks associated with the success of a wind park have significantly raised. In addition to regular analyses performed during evaluation of a wind park project, the Canadian environment poses two challenges important for security of supply: (i) operation over complex terrains and (ii) atmospheric icing events. With the objective of improving the security of supply related to wind energy production in Canadian settings, the proposed research program is composed of two themes. The first theme is related to the numerical modeling of the atmospheric boundary layer at micro-scales levels over complex terrains. The second one is dedicated to the atmospheric icing climatology of Canada. The first theme main objective is an improvement of the knowledge on the art of numerical modeling of the atmospheric boundary layer over complex terrains at micro-scale levels through fundamental studies of turbulence modeling and terrain representation (resolution, ground cover representation). The simulation code, adapted from the Models for Analysis of Turbine Hydraulics (MATH) platform of Hydro-Quebec (HQ) to atmospheric flows, will be the core of a tool to evaluate the risk and uncertainties associated with a wind park project by drawing exclusion regions where wind turbines should not be installed because local flow bears undesired characteristics such as (i) presence of flow separation, (ii) high levels of turbulence and (iii) strong shear levels. The main objective of the second theme is to provide the wind energy industry with a Canadian atlas of atmospheric icing events that occurred historically, displaying averages and extreme values of parameters that describe atmospheric icing events like frequency, duration, intensity, and wind properties. This detailed information could be used to estimate the energy loss due to such events, as well as the uncertainties on the projected energy yield of a wind project.