I-Corps: Lidar-based Technology to Track and Control Wind Turbine Wake Trajectory

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是通过先进的涡轮机尾流控制技术增加年能源产量，从而提高风力发电场的产量。这将进一步提高风能的效益，并为克服其挑战提供指导。根据美国能源部的《风能展望报告》，风能是一种成本效益高的可再生能源。在陆上公用事业规模上，风能是目前价格最低的能源之一。2016年，该行业雇佣了10万名工人，到2050年，预计将雇佣60万名工人。此外，研究人员估计，2013年风力发电使电力部门的用水量减少了365亿加仑。仅在2013年，它就减少了直接电力部门的二氧化碳排放量1.15亿吨，二氧化硫排放量15.7万吨，氮氧化物排放量9.7万吨。寻找适合产品市场的产品将提高将尾流控制技术纳入市场的可能性。该技术的其他应用还可以在海军防御中找到，潜艇尾流需要隐藏，以及航空交通管制，飞机尾流需要迅速分散。I-Corps项目技术利用瞬时尾流位置作为闭环控制算法的反馈输入，该算法操纵可用的涡轮参数（如俯仰、速度和功率控制），将尾流引导到所需位置。单个风机尾流是风电场复杂流场结构的基本组成部分。据观察，逆风涡轮尾流可使顺风涡轮发电量降低40%。因此，尾流控制或操纵提供了一个前所未有的机会，以提高风力发电场的整体输出，而不是提高单个涡轮机效率的有限收益。德克萨斯理工大学的尾流控制算法可以整合到现有的风力发电场中，并可以通过改变现有的控制参数来发挥作用。这项技术已经在基于风洞的超加速尾流运动模拟（HAWKS）平台上进行了测试。HAWKS平台能够模拟全尺寸尾流探测和转向。这种尾流转向可能会增加顺风涡轮机产生的功率，从而增加整个风力发电场的发电量。发电量的增加增加了收入潜力，特别是在低风速预测的电网价格竞标场景中。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to enhance wind farm output by increasing the annual energy production through advanced turbine wake-control technologies. This will further enhance the benefits of wind energy and provide guidance in overcoming its challenges. According to the DOE's Wind Vision Report, wind power can be a cost-effective renewable energy source. At the land-based utility-scale, wind is one of the lowest-priced energy sources available today. It has employed 100,000 workers in 2016 and by 2050 it is expected to employ 600,000 workers. Furthermore, researchers estimate that wind power generation in 2013 reduced power-sector water consumption by 36.5 billion gallons. It has reduced the direct power sector carbon dioxide emission by 115 million metric tons, sulfur dioxide emission by 157,000 metric tons, and nitrogen oxides by 97,000 metric tons in 2013 alone. Searching the product-market fit will improve the possibility of incorporating wake-control technologies in the marketplace. Additional applications of this technology can be found in naval defense, where submarine wakes should be concealed, as well as airline traffic control, where airplane wakes need to be dispersed rapidly. This I-Corps project technology utilizes instantaneous wake location as a feedback input to a closed-loop control algorithm that manipulates available turbine parameters (such as pitch, speed, and power control) to steer the wake to a desired location. Individual wind turbine wake is a fundamental building block of the complex flow structure in a wind farm. It has been observed that an upwind turbine wake reduces downwind turbine power generation by 40%. As a result, wake control or manipulation provides an unprecedented opportunity to improve wind farm output as a whole, in contrast to the limited benefits of improving individual turbine efficiency. Texas Tech University's wake control algorithm can be incorporated in existing wind farms and can function by altering existing control parameters. This technology has been tested at the wind-tunnel based Hyper Accelerated Wake Kinematics Simulation (HAWKS) platform. The HAWKS platform is capable of emulating full-scale wake detection and steering. Such wake steering would potentially increase power generated by downwind turbines, increasing wind farm power generation as a whole. This increase in power generation increases revenue potential, especially in a grid-price bidding scenario for a low wind speed forecast.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.