A review of wind turbines in complex terrain

Abstract

With global energy consumption increasing, a shift to renewable energy resources is critical for sustainable energy development. Wind energy has emerged as one of the most promising sustainable and renewable energy resources, with the ability to contribute to the world's energy demand significantly. Although wind is a renewable and generally inexpensive energy source, the amount of electricity available varies depending on wind conditions (e.g., speed and direction). As a result, it is critical to learn how to harvest wind energy more effectively and reliably. Furthermore, most newly constructed wind turbines were built onshore, demonstrating that the consequences of varied terrains are becoming increasingly crucial to the wind-energy field. As a result, before wind farm construction, the investment corporation must evaluate wind conditions and wind turbine wake behavior in the natural wind park site (which may include complex terrain). These investigations can be made using field measurements, laboratory experiments, or numerical simulations. In light of this trend, the present work contributes additional insights into the flow situation occurring around onshore wind turbines in the presence of different complex terrain types—Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) wind profile and turbine wake recovery over hilly and forested terrains. On the contrary, there is still limited knowledge on some issues, such as how a wind farm operates in complex terrain.