An Integrated Approach to Predict Wind Resource Energy from an Urban Wind Turbine in a Complex Built Environment

Abstract

Introducing an urban wind turbine in the crowded and complex City of North Sydney built environment can provide a significant opportunity to generate onsite wind energy and reduce electric demand and utility costs. Elevated turbulent conditions present a number of well-known challenges to urban wind turbines and as a result the energy production may reduce due to changes in wind speeds and directions. This current case study presents a procedure to optimize urban wind turbine energy production comprising key steps which include the project site potential for the installation of wind turbines, the estimation of the annual wind power available and the cost estimate for installation and maintenance. The wind potential for the project site was initially determined from statistical wind data cross-referenced with typical weather data for the Sydney region. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of principal wind directions were then used to adjust the local wind climate data and establish a suitable wind turbine position. Finally, the annual energy production for a number of 10-20 kW commercially available wind turbines was estimated taking into account the wind turbine power curve and technical specifications. The CFD simulations in the current study accounted for the complex site topography and incorporated the shielding impact of nearby trees and other vegetation in order to find the least turbulent area for a successful installation. This study assessed all the parameters that have impact on the accuracy of the numerical model including, computational domain, mesh distribution, numerical scheme and CFD results integration with the localized weather data for the project site.