Comparison of near wind farm wake measurements from scanning lidar with engineering models

Abstract

The presence of offshore wind farms causes downstream regions of reduced wind velocity, i.e. wind farm (cluster) wakes, which can affect the power of wind farms downstream. Engineering models are now being used to simulate the effects of these wakes, and an important requirement for model validation is a comparison with full-field measurements. Our objective in this paper is to parametrize and validate two engineering wake models with long-range lidar measurements. We use a long-range scanning Doppler lidar to scan the near wake region of a 400 MW offshore wind farm and compare the wind velocities in the wake to the outputs of two engineering models: FarmFlow and flappy. We adapt FarmFlow to solve the flow in highly unstable atmospheres by modifying the boundary conditions, which enables the comparison of velocity profiles behind the farm. The models perform qualitatively well in predicting the wake deficit and shape close to the farm and at lower heights. They predict higher wake losses within the farm when compared to production power data in a strongly unstable atmospheric case. However, the current analysis is limited due to the lack of inflow measurements for model initialization, compounded by limited data availability. We discuss the possibilities and limitations of long-range scanning lidar data for cluster wake model validation and the need for inflow measurements for model initialization. We conclude that with detailed inflow measurements, scanning long-range lidars could serve as a good tool for the validation of wind farm wake models.