Influence of atmospheric stability on wind farm layout optimization based on an improved Gaussian wake model

Abstract

Atmospheric stability, which has received widespread attention in recent years, has a significant impact on the performance of wind farms. However, majority of traditional wind farm layout optimization (WFLO) studies assume that atmospheric stability is always neutral. Hence, to consider the influence of atmospheric stability, we developed a novel WFLO framework based on an improved Gaussian wake model. In this framework, local atmospheric stability was used as an important input parameter, and the calculation method of wind power generation was modified accordingly. The proposed method was applied to three ideal wind farms and one real wind farm (Horns Rev 1 wind farm) for layout optimization. The results illustrated that atmospheric stability had a critical influence on WFLO results. As the atmosphere became more stable, the number of wind turbines with low power generation levels in the optimized layout increased gradually, resulting in a decline in the overall power generation. Moreover, the layout optimized under traditional neutral assumption was not suitable for the actual atmospheric environment. However, correct consideration of local atmospheric stability distribution in WFLO will result in a layout with a higher power output. In the real-world scenario, the developed WFLO framework can comprehensively consider local wind resource conditions to obtain a more efficient and reliable optimized layout scheme.