Investigation of wake and topography effects on a wind farm performance

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Recently Canada has become the 9th wind energy producer in the world covering approximately 3% or 6,500 MW of its total electrical power needs from wind energy. Nevertheless, the present wind farm models have difficulties in assessing all the interaction effects in a wind farm. This results in the under-performance of wind farms which put significant economic strain on the wind farm operation. The supporting organization owns and operates a wind farm. One of the wind turbines in the wind farm under-performs by 10%, which causes a financial strain. This under-performance is suspected to be due to the surrounding topography and/or wind farm layout. The main objectives of the proposed research project are to characterize (i) topography effects introduced in the vicinity of the low-performance wind turbine and (ii) wake effects from both the low-performance wind turbine and co-located wind turbines. The project objectives will be achieved through comprehensive field measurements and data analysis. The outcome of the proposed project will provide supporting organization with a better understanding of their wind farm, which will be vital from economic perspective and future expansion. Understanding the influence of wake interference and topography on wind farm modeling parameters is critical for Canadian wind energy industry. Improvement of the existing models reduces the uncertainty in energy yield assessment, thus contributing to enhanced productivity as well as strengthening the investor confidence in the Canadian wind energy market. The results from this project will directly benefit several stakeholders in the Canadian wind energy market including wind farm designers and installers, and ultimately the wind farm operators.