Analysis of the Wake Effect in the Distribution of Wind Turbines

Abstract

The annual net energy production in wind farms is severely reduced by the wake effect. During the process of planning and designing wind farms, it is necessary to optimize the distribution of wind turbines for reducing the negative impact of wake effect on wind farms. This article presents a parametric study to estimate the annual net energy production and the undesirable wake effect for different wind farm layout designs in a site located in the municipality of Asunción Ixtaltepec, Oaxaca, México. The aim of this study is to find the optimal wind farm layout to maximize the annual energy production and to keep the wake losses under a threshold of five percent. Each wind farm layout design is simulated in Matlab and WAsP through a linear wind model by taking into account the terrain roughness. Finally, the results of this parametric study are compared with the practical recommendation given by the Danish Association of the Wind Industry.