Wakes in large offshore wind farms. Model evaluation in Upwind.

Power losses due to wind turbine wakes are of the order of 10 and 20% of total power output in large wind farms. The focus of this research carried out within the EC funded UPWIND project is wind speed and turbulence modelling for large wind farms/wind turbines in complex terrain and offshore in order to optimise wind farm layouts to reduce wake losses and loads. For complex terrain, a set of three evaluations is underway. The first is a model comparison for a Gaussian Hill where CFD models and wind farm models are being compared for the case of one hilltop wind turbine. The next case is for five turbines in flat terrain. Finally a complex terrain wind farm will be modelled and compared with observations. For offshore wind farms, the focus is on cases at the Horns Rev wind farm which indicate wind farm models require modification to reduce under-prediction of wake losses while CFD models typically over-predict wake losses. Further investigation is underway to determine the causes of these discrepancies. The project therefore represents a set of unique evaluations of models with observations in different environments. Progress towards improving wind farm models will be described.