Print Email Facebook Twitter Investigating energy production and wake losses of multi-gigawatt offshore wind farms with atmospheric large-eddy simulation Title Investigating energy production and wake losses of multi-gigawatt offshore wind farms with atmospheric large-eddy simulation Author Baas, Peter (Whiffle Weather Finecasting) Verzijlbergh, R.A. (TU Delft Energie and Industrie; Whiffle Weather Finecasting) van Dorp, Pim (Whiffle Weather Finecasting) Jonker, H.J.J. (TU Delft Atmospheric Remote Sensing; Whiffle Weather Finecasting) Date 2023 Abstract As a consequence of the rapid growth of the globally installed offshore wind energy capacity, the size of individual wind farms is increasing. This poses a challenge to models that predict energy production. For instance, the current generation of wake models has mostly been calibrated on existing wind farms of much smaller size. This work analyzes annual energy production and wake losses for future, multi-gigawatt wind farms with atmospheric large-eddy simulation. To that end, 1 year of actual weather has been simulated for a suite of hypothetical 4 GW offshore wind farm scenarios. The scenarios differ in terms of applied turbine type, installed capacity density, and layout. The results suggest that production numbers increase significantly when the rated power of the individual turbines is larger while keeping the total installed capacity the same. Even for turbine types with similar rated power but slightly different power curves, significant differences in production were found. Although wind speed was identified as the most dominant factor determining the aerodynamic losses, a clear impact of atmospheric stability and boundary layer height has been identified. By analyzing losses of the first-row turbines, the yearly average global-blockage effect is estimated to between 2 and 3 %, but it can reach levels over 10 % for stably stratified conditions and wind speeds around 8 m s−1. Using a high-fidelity modeling technique, the present work provides insights into the performance of future, multi-gigawatt wind farms for a full year of realistic weather conditions. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2295e0b9-1380-4d9c-8dfa-ed01b580c827 DOI https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-787-2023 ISSN 2366-7443 Source Wind Energy Science, 8 (5), 787–805 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2023 Peter Baas, R.A. Verzijlbergh, Pim van Dorp, H.J.J. Jonker Files PDF wes_8_787_2023.pdf 7.87 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:2295e0b9-1380-4d9c-8dfa-ed01b580c827/datastream/OBJ/view