Jorge Navarro

On Roof Geometry for Urban Wind Energy Exploitation in High-Rise Buildings

The European program HORIZON2020 aims to have 20% of electricity produced by renewable sources. The building sector represents 40% of the European Union energy consumption. Reducing energy consumption in buildings is therefore a priority for energy efficiency. The present investigation explores the most adequate roof shapes compatible with the placement of different types of small wind energy generators on high-rise buildings for urban wind energy exploitation. The wind flow around traditional state-of-the-art roof shapes is considered. In addition, the influence of the roof edge on the wind flow on high-rise buildings is analyzed. These geometries are investigated, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and the turbulence intensity threshold for horizontal axis wind turbines is considered. The most adequate shapes for wind energy exploitation are identified, studying vertical profiles of velocity, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulence intensity. Curved shapes are the most interesting building roof shapes from the wind energy exploitation point of view, leading to the highest speed-up and the lowest turbulence intensity.

Numerical simulations and observations for offshore wind farms in a NW Mediterranean shelf

ABSTRACT Sánchez-Arcilla, A., González-Marco, D., Sospedra, J., Palomares, A., Sierra, J.P., Schuon, F., Espino. M., Grifoll, M., Pallarés, E., Jiménez, P.A. and Navarro, J. 2013. Meteo-oceanographic simulations and observations to assess the potential of offshore wind farm in a NW Mediterranean shelf. Renewable marine energy is important in squeezed Mediterranean coastal zones. Wind turbines deployed over the narrow Catalan continental shelf require accurate wind/wave/current fields for a reliable design, operation and maintenance. This paper presents the large (comparative to other open sea areas) errors in meteo-oceanographic predictions for semi enclosed domains such as the coastal sea off the Ebro Delta coast. The emphasis is on the sequence of high resolution coupled and nested models and the role of in situ collocated measurements for calibration and validation.