A comparison of four microscale wind flow models in predicting the real-world performance of a large-scale peri-urban wind turbine, using onsite LiDAR wind measurements

Raymond Byrne,Neil J Hewitt,Philip Griffiths,Paul Macartain

doi:10.1016/j.seta.2021.101323

Raymond Byrne, Neil J Hewitt + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2021.101323

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Abstract

As wind energy continues to expand, new markets for distributed wind applications are expected, including behind-the-meter deployment at industrial consumer sites in peri-urban areas. The presence of buildings in these areas can give rise to complex wind regimes. This study compares the measured annual energy output of an operating Vestas V52 wind turbine, in a peri-urban environment, with predictions from four microscale wind flow models. The models upscale and downscale onsite LiDAR wind measurements at six heights from 10 m to 200 m. The models consist of a linear shelter model and three RANS CFD approaches, implemented in two widely used micro-siting tools, namely WAsP and WindSim. Variations from 1.4% to 64% between model predicted and measured electrical energy output are observed. For low-rise buildings with heights up to 20% of the turbine hub height, the models are most accurate using wind measurements at ~ 3 times the height of the buildings. In the case of a tall narrow building, ~ 80% of the hub height, best model predictions are from twice the height of the building. Wind shear measurements suggest that obstacles down to 20% of the hub height, up to distances of 100 obstacles heights away, are significant.

Highlights

Distributed wind encompasses small, medium, and the lower end of large-scale wind turbine technologies, deployed as single wind turbines or as small-scale wind farm projects [1]
Similar to studies outlined in literature, there is no clear standout best modelling approach covering all directions from all scaling heights
Wind Atlas Applications Program (WAsP)-computational fluid dynamics (CFD) roughness with the polar grid com bined with simulations in 10◦ wide sectors performes slightly better that the rectangular grid used in both WindSim models for simulations in 22.5◦ degree wide sectors

Summary

Introduction

Distributed wind encompasses small, medium, and the lower end of large-scale wind turbine technologies (up to ~ 2 MW), deployed as single wind turbines or as small-scale wind farm projects [1] This sector of the wind energy market has had mixed success to date, primarily due to intermittent government incentives, technological challenges and competition with solar PV [2,3]. New energy policies such as the EU Commission’s new Clean Energy Package require member states to create legal frameworks to enable the development of community energy and energy prosumers by addressing market and regulatory barriers to participation in electricity markets [4,5] Such energy pol icies can give new impetus to further develop distributed wind markets globally. At a project’s prefeasibility stage, the unobstructive deployment of tall met masts may be limited by ground

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