Wind Farm Site Research Articles

The Impacts of Offshore Wind Farms on Coastal Tourists’ Behaviors in South Korea

Offshore wind power has grown significantly worldwide but the presence of wind farms can be problematic in tourism areas. Offshore wind farms affect tourism behaviors. This study was conducted to assess the extent to which individuals’ characteristics affect their acceptance of wind farm projects, tourism behaviors represented as trip intention and site substitution when the offshore wind turbines are deployed in the beach. Using a case of offshore wind farm projects in South Korea, study results show that individuals’ perceptions of wind energy and perceived impacts of tourism were the critical variables that help understand the public acceptance. The likelihood of an individual visiting a beach with offshore wind farms was connected to their values concerning wind energy, seascape, and the environment. Such values played an important role in deciding to visit a different site. The results expectedly provide meaningful implications related to the siting of offshore wind farms.

Assessing Wind Farm Site Suitability in Bangladesh: A GIS-AHP Approach

Wind energy is one of the most attractive renewable energy sources because of its low operating, maintenance, and production costs as well as its low environmental impact. The goal of this study is to discover the best locations in Bangladesh for wind farms to be built and operated efficiently. This study applied the Geographic Information System (GIS) and Analytical Hierarchy (AHP) methodologies to examine the eight important parameters upon which the suitability of locations is highly dependent. This analysis finds that Bangladesh has large regions appropriate for wind farm installation, with 3718.76 km2 and 16,631.14 km2 classified as being of “very high” and “high” suitability, respectively. It was also observed that wind speed, land slope, and elevation each had a height-weighted criterion of 32%, 27%, and 12%, respectively, when picking suitable locations. However, the overall viability of this study in identifying suitable sites has been evaluated based on ROC and AUC techniques and found satisfactory as per AUC value. The knowledge gained from this study will help the sustainable and renewable energy development authority (SREDA) of Bangladesh to expedite the renewable energy investment process and will ensure greater certainty in resource development. The findings of this research can be considered as baseline information for the wind energy sector.

A simple method of fast evaluating full-field wake velocities for arbitrary wind turbine arrays on complex terrains

Wind energy is an important option of renewable energy and plays more and more an irreplaceable role in many regions. A technical and meanwhile a scientific problem directly relevant to selecting the wind farm site, optimizing the wind farm layout and evaluating the power output, is to calculate accurately the wake effects generated behind wind turbines, which affect the wind velocity distribution of downstream turbines and reduce the power output of a wind farm. Through modifications of near-field and far-field empirical wake models and the wake model on a complex terrain, a unified wake model is developed to calculate the full-field wake velocity distribution over a wind farm with arbitrary turbine arrays located on flat or complex terrains. The derived wake velocity is formulated in an explicit and concise form to obtain the wind velocity at any position within the turbine arrays. The velocity distribution over the whole array can be fast acquired by implementing a simple procedure and occupying the least computing resources. Compared to the CFD modelling, the present method performs superiorly in both easiness and efficiency, which would be a powerful tool in designing and optimizing a large wind farm composed of numerous and variably deployed turbines of different densities on complex terrains. With this solution, it becomes feasible to construct the wind turbine arrays at the sites of restricted space, specifically the offshore islands and the large floating structures.

Numerical Study on Seismic Response of Offshore Wind Turbine Monopile in Multi-Layered Soil Profile of Arabian Sea

The seismic performance of monopiled offshore wind turbine (OWT) structures was evaluated numerically. The aim was to analyze offshore wind farm sites on complicated layered seabed with high seismicity. Following pile soil analysis (PISA) model, three-dimensional (3D) numerical evaluations were undertaken for two separate locations under two independent seismic events. The effects of pile diameter, depth, site impact owing to transverse soil layering, uni-directional and multi-directional seismic loading and seismic acceleration magnitude are presented. Dynamic impedance depth variation and site response analysis via lateral displacement, lateral soil response and Fourier response amplitude are explored in frequency and time domain. In a seismic zone with stratified soil, pile diameter has a greater influence. Variations in soil profile affect wind turbine performance and seismic sensitivity. This research will give a strong platform for later studies to recommend a safe wind farm site based on simulation results.

Multi-Criteria GIS-Based Analysis for Mapping Suitable Sites for Onshore Wind Farms in Southeast France

Wind energy is critical to traditional energy sources replacement in France and throughout the world. Wind energy generation in France is quite unevenly spread across the country. Despite its considerable wind potential, the research region is among the least productive. The region is a very complicated location where socio-environmental, technological, and topographical restrictions intersect, which is why energy production planning studies in this area have been delayed. In this research, the methodology used for identifying appropriate sites for future wind farms in this region combines GIS with MCDA approaches such as AHP. Six determining factors are selected: the average wind speed, which has a weight of 38%; the protected areas, which have a relative weight of 26%; the distance to electrical substations and road networks, both of which have a significant influence on relative weights of 13%; and finally, the slope and elevation, which have weights of 5% and 3%, respectively. Only one alternative was investigated (suitable and unsuitable). The spatial database was generated using ArcGIS and QGIS software; the AHP was computed using Excel; and several treatments, such as raster data categorization and weighted overlay, were automated using the Python programming language. The regions identified for wind turbines installation are defined by a total of 962,612 pixels, which cover a total of 651 km2 and represent around 6.98% of the research area. The theoretical wind potential calculation results suggest that for at least one site with an area bigger than 400 ha, the energy output ranges between 182.60 and 280.20 MW. The planned sites appear to be suitable; each site can support an average installed capacity of 45 MW. This energy benefit will fulfill the region’s population’s transportation, heating, and electrical demands.

Impacts of integration of wind farms on voltage stability margin

<span>The current methods use conservative voltage based on the maximum wind speed with simultaneous occurrence in peak loading conditions to determine the maximum size of the wind farm. Wind patterns never let the wind farm on the wind farm site produce its maximum capacity during hours of heavy loading conditions. A new method is presented in this research to determine the maximum size of wind farms including voltage stability margin (VSM) and wind patterns at the wind farm site in the size of a wind farm. This plan is a method to increase the maximum size of a wind farm with a limited wind generation option under certain conditions based on VSM. The proposed method is applied to the wind farm in the IEEE 14-bus network power system. The results of the new method show that the maximum size of wind farms increases when the system operates with intermittent wind control to maintain the voltage stability.</span>

Recent developments in offshore wind energy systems: Technologies and practices

This paper deals with offshore wind power generation technologies, power transmission and grid communication features, and associated power system studies for effective implementation of offshore wind energy systems, explaining its various stages of implementation. Also, this paper reviews the latest trends in offshore wind energy systems, addressing various aspects like large wind farm siting, power evacuation studies, cable selection, high-voltage direct current/flexible alternating current transmission systems (HVDC/FACTS) technology options, reliability evaluation, and autonomous monitoring. India's renewable power generation capacity through off-shore wind generation is also outlined to ensure low carbon energy emissions with improved energy efficiency. The policy and regulatory framework factors for reaching five gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind projects in the states of Tamilnadu and Gujarat by the year 2032 using current methods and advanced technology are discussed here. This goal can be accomplished using current practices and advanced technologies. For effective implementation of offshore wind farms, suitable measures and likely actions by various stakeholders are suggested.

Design Evolution of CTV Vessels

When talking about the construction and operations/maintenance (O&M) of an offshore windfarm site it is critical the windfarm developer identify the important role that maritime vessels will play.There are a huge array of marine assets required in the process of developing and maintaining a windfarm, these include but are not limited to cable laying vessels, construction jack-up vessels, accommodation ships, survey vessels and for the purpose of this paper crew transfer vessels (CTVs).Offshore infrastructure including the wind turbines themselves and offshore substations need to be maintained during their lifetime for the system to be successful and for offshore windfarms the sole means of access to the offshore infrastructure is via a vessel. As a result, access to the wind turbines need to be possible throughout the year in a variety of weather and seastate conditions.For this reason, a very specific vessel type, designed specifically for this purpose is required to provide the maximum possible range of access to the wind turbine maintenance technicians.Like any other you need the right tool for the job.The evolution in this industry depends not only on the designers but also engine and machinery manufacturers, classification societies, shipbuilders, operators and charterers to stay in front and to ensure the best solution is being offered in terms of economics, safety, reliability and environmental impact.In addition, in a renewable industry is important that all parts stay consistent with the industry goal, posing additional requirements and challenges to the design of the vessels of the future.This paper has been written to present the evolution and the future of the design of the CTV vessel, from the experience of a designer and the application worldwide of a technology developed in the birthplace of the offshore wind industry.

Offshore Wind Farm Layout Optimization Considering the Power Collection System Cost

The paper proposes a method for optimizing the layout of offshore wind farms to increase their efficiency by reducing the effect of aerodynamic shading, minimizing electrical losses in cable lines of the system for receiving and transmitting electrical energy generated by wind turbines to the electrical grid of the power system. The task is reduced to determining several parameters that define the geometric dimensions and shape of the layout grid with pre-installed tur-bine locations. This approach, in contrast to the coordinate-wise search method, makes it possible to build symmetrical grid layouts of wind power plants, which in practice are more convenient in terms of maintenance and operation. Together with the optimization of the layout, the search for the optimal location of the offshore transformer substation and the synthesis of the scheme of cable joints between wind power plants has been carried out. To solve this problem, a heuristic algorithm was used to search for a minimum spanning tree with a restriction on the conductivity of connections, which made it possible to build realistic schemes and more adequately assess their technical and economic characteristics. As the results of testing the proposed methodology on the example of optimizing the layout of the Horns Rev 1 wind farm have shown, the use of this approach has reduced the cost of the electrical system by 10–12 %. This is 7–11 % higher than the result obtained by using the MST algorithm, which performs the construction of a circuit of cable joints of a simplified topology. The change in the size and shape of the boundaries of the wind farm site resulted in an increase in the estimated electricity generation by 2.3 % and a decrease in its cost by 4 %. When optimizing the layout of wind turbines within the fixed boundaries of the site, these indicators are improved by only 1 and 2 % as compared to the original scheme.

Statistical-analytical study on world development trend in offshore wind energy production capacity focusing on Great Britain with the aim of MCDA based offshore wind farm siting

Present study is a statistical-analytical analysis about the offshore wind energy plants development. As a multi objective or multi step study, in the first step the last 20 year development trend of top 10 pioneering countries in offshore wind energy production capacity studied to classify the countries based on their activity level in development path. Based on results the Great Britain (GB) can be nominated as the most active country from the offshore wind energy production capacity development point of view. But in order to access a real rank of countries based on offshore wind energy per capita, a more reliable index defined with dividing the offshore wind energy production capacity by population of countries. Based on introduced index the condition of GB with per capita of 123.5 Watt/person is not good enough compared to countries like Denmark, Belgium, Sweden and Netherlands with lower production capacity but higher per capita of 293.6, 194.4, 184.7 and 145.9 Watt/person respectively. Considering the island type and geographical position of GB and also having the highest development rate of offshore wind energy production capacity between top 10 countries in last 20 years, as the second step an analytical study conducted to find the best geographical coordinates for new offshore wind energy plant installation and enhancing production capacity. Blending multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA) with GIS software that is called special multi criteria decision analysis (SMCDA) is the method that is applied for offshore wind farm siting. Wind energy density, wind speed, water depth and distance from shore are the four main selected criteria for offshore wind farm siting. Next to for main criteria, the locations of installed or under construction offshore wind farms and also efficiency of offshore wind farms in various months and seasons are the other criteria for selecting suitable siting. In addition to above mentioned criteria, the suitability analysis for offshore wind farm siting applied in four different altitudes and also in six various areas around the GB. Based on results the northern (area#1), north western (some parts of area#6), north eastern (some parts of area#2) and some parts of western waters (area#5) are the best areas for installing offshore wind farms based on suitability map results in all four altitudes.

Developing a new wind dataset by blending satellite data and WRF model wind predictions

This paper presents an approach to improve wind datasets developed using the regional atmospheric model Weather Research Forecasting by combining its predictions with remotely sensed wind observations in enhanced wind speed analyses that leads to blended winds. In this study, satellite data derived from scatterometers, radiometers, and synthetic aperture radar are used. The spatial and temporal features of each wind product are thoroughly analysed. For the probabilistic evaluation of their skill, comprehensive comparisons with available buoy data are carried out. The statistical analysis shows that the combined use of satellite and numerical weather prediction model data improves the agreement with buoy measurements, demonstrating the added value of using the blended product. As an application of the method, new improved satellite wind speeds are presented in the form of a wind energy assessment along the Iberian coastal area. From inspection of the provided wind power maps, northern and central regions emerge as the most promising areas for wind harnessing offshore despite some seasonal variations. Finally, potential wind farm sites are provided, along with insights into multi-year wind speed distribution. The results show how the new dataset can be used for the selection of promising areas for wind exploitation.

Distributed onshore wind farm siting using intelligent optimization algorithm based on spatial and temporal variability of wind energy

Distributed joint complementary wind generation is a powerful way to reduce the variability and improve the penetration of wind power. But distributed wind farm siting is a complex problem of nonlinear and global combinatorial optimization. Various correlation coefficients were used to measure the complementarity of renewable energy, which were not intuitive and accurate in former studies, and traditional siting methods are based on the abundance of wind energy, siting results cannot fully utilize the complementary potential of distributed wind energy. In this study, intelligent optimization algorithm is adopted to select the location of distributed wind farm in China mainland from the perspective of utilizing the complementarity of wind energy. The result showed that the existing wind power bases have obvious complementary superiority, combined power generation can improve availability from about 57.61% to 66.93%, reduce the long/short term variability confidence by about 40%. Siting result indicated that central and eastern Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Hexi Corridor are still key regions for the future wind farms construction. This study provides more direct evidence of the complementarity of existing wind power bases, and the proposed siting methodology can be applied in different regions worldwide.

Wind Farm Deployment in Uninhabited Islets: A Case Study the Region of the South Aegean (Greece)

The transition of nations to renewable energy sources is a fact, and the deployment of renewable energy (RE) projects has increased in the last decades. The deployment of energy projects in uninhabited islets (islands) provides a promising opportunity for low-carbon energy transition. Considering the importance of the spatial dimension of RE projects, in this research, we identified and ranked uninhabited islets (UIs) for wind farm deployment in the South Aegean Sea, Greece. The proposed methodology combines geographic information systems (GIS) and two multicriteria analysis methods (AHP and TOPSIS) using some restrictions found in Greek law as well as assessment criteria considering environmental, economic, and technical aspects. The appropriate UIs were then ranked under four different policy scenarios (baseline, equal criteria weights, a policy scenario oriented to technical/economic criteria, and a policy scenario focusing on environmental criteria). The results indicated the existence of three UIs for siting wind farms in the region of the South Aegean, with the same ranking of these UIs under different scenarios. The proposed methodology provides useful guidelines for selecting UIs as wind farm sites in Greece and could be applied in other countries worldwide.

A Technical and Operational Perspective on Quality Analysis of Stitching Images with Multi-Row Panorama and Multimedia Sources for Visualizing the Tourism Site of Onshore Wind Farm

A virtual tour of the onshore wind farm near Gaomei Wetland, Taichung City, Taiwan, was produced by producing panoramic images of the site by stitching images captured with a full-frame digital single-lens reflex camera and a multi-row panorama instrument, which automatically and precisely divided each scene into several images. Subsequently, the image stitching quality was improved by calculating the root mean square error (RMSE) of tie point matching and adjusting the tie points. Errors due to eccentricity attributed to the camera’s relative position to the rotational axis of the multi-row panorama instrument were examined and solved; the effect of the overlap rate on image stitching quality was also investigated. According to the study results, the overlap rate between the original images was inversely proportional to the RMSE and directly proportional to the time required for photography and image processing. The stitching quality was improved by resolving eccentricity and by increasing the number of tie points. The RMSEs of the panoramas of all stations were all less than 5 pixels. Subsequently, multimedia materials providing information on wind turbine attributes were combined with the panorama platform to establish a virtual reality tour platform. The content of the platform could be accessed with a smartphone and viewed with a virtual reality device and could promote both tourist attractions and wind energy.

An integrated MCDM framework based on interval 2-tuple linguistic: A case of offshore wind farm site selection in China

Offshore wind farm (OWF) site selection is critical to the successful development of offshore wind energy and manifests as a complex multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) process. To promote the further healthy development of offshore wind energy, this study developed a new integrated MCDM framework to better evaluate and rank OWF sites. The main contributions are as follows. First, the interval 2-tuple linguistic (I2TL) provides a simple, interpretable, and precise approach to linguistic information handling and effectively prevents information missing and distortion. Second, different opinions are aggregated using a modified similarity aggregation method (SAM), reducing the errors due to neglecting the effect of individual differences on consistency. Third, a new integrated weighting method combining the simplified best-worst method (SBWM) and method based on the removal effects of criteria (MEREC) is adopted to acquire evaluation criteria weights, which comprehensively reveals the relative importance of criteria. Fourth, the proximity indexed value (PIV) method is expanded with I2TL for alternative ranking to minimize the rank reversal problem. Finally, the applicability and robustness of the proposed framework are validated through a case study in China as well as sensitivity and comparative analyses. The proposed MCDM framework can provide beneficial support for managers to analyze and select the optimal OWF site.

FLOW Estimation and Rose Superposition (FLOWERS): an integral approach to engineering wake models

Abstract. Annual energy production (AEP) is often the objective function in wind plant layout optimization studies. The conventional method to compute AEP for a wind farm is to first evaluate power production for each discrete wind direction and speed using either computational fluid dynamics simulations or engineering wake models. The AEP is then calculated by weighted-averaging (based on the wind rose at the wind farm site) the power produced across all wind directions and speeds. We propose a novel formulation for time-averaged wake velocity that incorporates an analytical integral of a wake deficit model across every wind direction. This approach computes the average flow field more efficiently, and layout optimization is an obvious application to exploit this benefit. The clear advantage of this new approach is that the layout optimization produces solutions with comparable AEP performance yet is completed 2 orders of magnitude faster. The analytical integral and the use of a Fourier expansion to express the wind speed and wind direction frequency create a relatively smooth solution space for the gradient-based optimizer to excel in comparison to the existing weighted-averaging power calculation.

Factor analysis of the Zaporizhzhia wind park impact on bats based on the index of their activity and dynamics of species diversity

Based on the studies in the period of 2010-2021, there was obtained some information on the behavior of bats and their species composition at the Zaporizhia wind park in the Zaporizhia Region, Ukraine. In the study area, there was established the presence of 10 species of bats belonging to 7 genera. The most complete results were obtained in 2019, when 4 field research methods were used, 28 expedition trips were carried out and 4177 bat signals were recorded. In total, the information on 43938 bat signals was collected in 2010-2021. The total operating time of the ultrasonic detectors was 4565 hours. There were calculated indices of the voice activity of bats for three research methods by seasons, different functional zones and phases of the annual cycle of animals. Surveys on transects with the geo-position of each recorded signal made it possible to characterize the distribution of bats over the territory of the wind farm, and the use of the Kernel Density tool allowed to differentiate the wind farm site of the Zaporizhia wind park into the zones that are conditionally safe for bats and high-risk zones. There have been determined the periods of the year and time periods of night activity, in which it is advisable to use measures to minimize the negative impact. Using international and own experience, there have been proposed methods for repelling bats away from the wind turbines.

Assessment of the impact of technogenic monitoring sites on seasonal migration ornithocomplexes

Today, the Azov-Black Sea coast of Ukraine is one of the most important migration routes in Europe, which is used by up to 15 million birds every season. The development of a scientific and information system for monitoring, assessing and predicting the state of biodiversity on the territories of wind power plants (WPP) in the Azov-Black Sea region is extremely important, and the study of seasonal ornithocomplexes is a key moment in the creation of wind farm sites. Assessment of the impact on them is paramount in the development of management plans and risk minimization. The studies were carried out in the Azov-Black Sea region of Ukraine at 12 monitoring sites in the period from 2010 to 2021 using modern international methods adopted in the European Community, used for these technogenic territories, as well as author’s developments. The studies that were carried out using the WEBBIRDS WEB-application for monitoring seasonal ornithocomplexes and computer modeling of assessing the impact of the wind farm site based on the server accumulation of monitoring data (an author’s development), software for calculating the risk assessment of bird collisions with wind turbines (CRM), assessing the potential biological removals (PBR) showed no significant adverse impact of wind farms on birds observed at all 12 sites. These monitoring studies make it possible to assert that the main impact on the stability of migratory bird complexes in the project area is exerted by various biotic and abiotic factors such as landscape-biotopic, forage, weather factors, and the impact of wind farms is minimal.

Accuracy of WRF for prediction of operational wind farm data and assessment of influence of upwind farms on power production

Numerical Weather Prediction models such as Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) are increasingly used to inform planning of both on-shore and off-shore wind-farms. This study aims to establish the accuracy with which WRF can be employed to predict the operational performance of a wind farm located in complex terrain and to assess the impact of nearby wind farms on farm energy production. Analysis is presented for a wind farm operating in complex terrain located in Baja California, Mexico. The WRF model initialized with the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) data provides time-variation and annual occurrence of wind speed with root mean square error (RMSE) 12% and 1.4%, using either the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) or Pleim-Xu (PX) land-surface models. Energy supply from a 10 MW wind farm is predicted to within 5.25% (RUC) and 2% (PX) of measured data. The wind resource at several sites in the region offers the potential for wind farms with capacity factors in the range 32–34% without wake interaction. This reduces to 29% when wind turbine momentum extraction within the farm is modelled. The wakes of these farms are found to extend over 12 km downwind, with greater extent for larger-diameter 5 MW turbines than 2 MW turbines. These farm wakes reduce power output from a downwind farm by over 20% for wind speeds below rated speed resulting in 1.3–1.7% reduction in annual energy. This analysis of WRF accuracy establishes confidence in use of numerical weather prediction tools for wind farm operational data and informing use for wind farm siting in relation to nearby farms.

New hybrid multi criteria decision making method for offshore windfarm site location in Persian Gulf, Iran

Choosing the right location for the sustainable development of offshore wind energy plays an important role in the success of renewable projects. In this regard, in the present study, a new application of the hybrid Fuzzy-SWARA & Fuzzy-WASPAS method was presented to prioritize the suitable area for developing offshore wind projects. For a case study, five regions with high potential for offshore wind energy in the Persian-Gulf have been investigated. Economic assessment was evaluated using the Levelized Cost of energy method. Evaluation of offshore wind farms has been analyzed from various aspects including technical, economic, social, environmental and risk. The SWARA was used for weighting the criteria and the WASPAS was used for prioritizing the offshore windy areas. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to determine the stability of the new hybrid MCDM method. Also for comparative study, the results of traditional MCDM methods such as Fuzzy-SAW, Fuzzy-VIKOR, and Fuzzy-TOPSIS were compared with the results of Fuzzy-WASPAS. The economic evaluation showed that the cost of electricity generated in the Persian-Gulf was 0.05 $/kWh. Also, the new hybrid MCDM method has a very high stability and can be used as an efficient method in future studies in offshore energy planning.