Mountain waves can impact wind power generation

Caroline Draxl,Justin Sharp,Garrett Wedam,Larry K Berg,Rochelle P Worsnop,Julie K Lundquist,Yelena Pichugina,Duli Chand,James M Wilczak,Geng Xia

doi:10.5194/wes-6-45-2021

Abstract

Abstract. Mountains can modify the weather downstream of the terrain. In particular, when stably stratified air ascends a mountain barrier, buoyancy perturbations develop. These perturbations can trigger mountain waves downstream of the mountains that can reach deep into the atmospheric boundary layer where wind turbines operate. Several such cases of mountain waves occurred during the Second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2) in the Columbia River basin in the lee of the Cascade Range bounding the states of Washington and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Signals from the mountain waves appear in boundary layer sodar and lidar observations as well as in nacelle wind speeds and power observations from wind plants. Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations also produce mountain waves and are compared to satellite, lidar, and sodar observations. Simulated mountain wave wavelengths and wave propagation speeds (group velocities) are analyzed using the fast Fourier transform. We found that not all mountain waves exhibit the same speed and conclude that the speed of propagation, magnitudes of wind speeds, or wavelengths are important parameters for forecasters to recognize the risk for mountain waves and associated large drops or surges in power. When analyzing wind farm power output and nacelle wind speeds, we found that even small oscillations in wind speed caused by mountain waves can induce oscillations between full-rated power of a wind farm and half of the power output, depending on the position of the mountain wave's crests and troughs. For the wind plant analyzed in this paper, mountain-wave-induced fluctuations translate to approximately 11 % of the total wind farm output being influenced by mountain waves. Oscillations in measured wind speeds agree well with WRF simulations in timing and magnitude. We conclude that mountain waves can impact wind turbine and wind farm power output and, therefore, should be considered in complex terrain when designing, building, and forecasting for wind farms.

Highlights

As wind farm deployment in the United States and worldwide continues to increase, contributions from renewable wind energy production to the electrical-generation portfolio are increasing (AWEA Data Services, 2017; Global Wind Energy Council, 2018)
Taking advantage of the rich dataset of the Second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2; Shaw et al, 2019; Wilczak et al, 2019) and mesoscale simulations from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, this paper focuses on one phenomenon only – the impact of mountain waves on wind farms
Each week throughout the WFIP2 field program, scientists and wind energy forecasters reviewed the daily weather in the region and wrote a brief synopsis in an event log (Wilzcak et al, 2019) assessing the significance of the key phenomena (Pichugina et al, 2020) that impacted wind power generation

Summary

Introduction

As wind farm deployment in the United States and worldwide continues to increase, contributions from renewable wind energy production to the electrical-generation portfolio are increasing (AWEA Data Services, 2017; Global Wind Energy Council, 2018). Wind plants are already and will continue to be deployed in areas of complex terrain to satisfy that portfolio. One area of complex terrain where numerous wind farms are deployed is the Columbia River basin in the northwestern United States, which is located east of the Cascade Range. The Cascade Range poses an obstacle that impacts the weather and modifies the wind flow to the east of the Cascade Range, which impacts wind farm production of the deployed wind power plants in the area (Fig. 1)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion