Javier Sanz Rodrigo

IEA-Task 31 WAKEBENCH: Towards a protocol for wind farm flow model evaluation. Part 2: Wind farm wake models

Researchers within the International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 31: Wakebench have created a framework for the evaluation of wind farm flow models operating at the microscale level. The framework consists of a model evaluation protocol integrated with a web-based portal for model benchmarking (www.windbench.net). This paper provides an overview of the building-block validation approach applied to wind farm wake models, including best practices for the benchmarking and data processing procedures for validation datasets from wind farm SCADA and meteorological databases. A hierarchy of test cases has been proposed for wake model evaluation, from similarity theory of the axisymmetric wake and idealized infinite wind farm, to single-wake wind tunnel (UMN-EPFL) and field experiments (Sexbierum), to wind farm arrays in offshore (Horns Rev, Lillgrund) and complex terrain conditions (San Gregorio). A summary of results from the axisymmetric wake, Sexbierum, Horns Rev and Lillgrund benchmarks are used to discuss the state-of-the-art of wake model validation and highlight the most relevant issues for future development.

Analysing wind farm efficiency on complex terrains

Actual performances of onshore wind farms are deeply affected both by wake interactions and terrain complexity: therefore monitoring how the efficiency varies with the wind direction is a crucial task. Polar efficiency plot is therefore a useful tool for monitoring wind farm performances. The approach deserves careful discussion for onshore wind farms, where orography and layout commonly affect performance assessment. The present work deals with three modern wind farms, owned by Sorgenia Green, located on hilly terrains with slopes from gentle to rough. Further, onshore wind farm of Nprrekffir Enge has been analysed as a reference case: its layout is similar to offshore wind farms and the efficiency is mainly driven by wakes. It is shown and justified that terrain complexity imposes a novel and more consistent way for defining polar efficiency. Dependency of efficiency on wind direction, farm layout and orography is analysed and discussed. Effects of atmospheric stability have been also investigated through MERRA reanalysis data from NASA satellites. Monin-Obukhov Length has been used to discriminate climate regimes.

Investigation of the Stable Atmospheric Boundary Layer at Halley Antarctica

Boundary-layer measurements from the Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica are analyzed to determine flux–profile relationships. Dimensionless quantities are derived in the standard approach from estimates of wind shear, potential temperature gradient, Richardson number, eddy diffusivities for momentum and heat, Prandtl number, mixing length and turbulent kinetic energy. Nieuwstadt local scaling theory for the stable atmospheric boundary-layer appears to work well departing only slightly from expressions found in mid-latitudes. An

Sensitivity Analysis of the WRF Model: Wind-Resource Assessment for Complex Terrain

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The role of predictability in the investment phase of wind farms

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Evaluation of the antarctic surface wind climate from ERA reanalyses and RACMO2/ANT simulations based on automatic weather stations

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