Optimizing the wind farm layout for minimizing the wake losses

Abstract

The development of wind farms requires an optimal design of wind turbines layout. The main goal of this optimization is to minimize the wake effect through the optimal placement of the wind turbines. The current study aims to standardize the wake losses among all wind turbines in the wind farm and bringing their losses to a similar level. An objective function was developed for this purpose, and used by the genetic algorithm to maximize the farm energy output and prevent the wake concentration on specific wind turbines. The proposed method has been applied to the Gasiri Wind farm through a simulation approach. The applied optimization process has shown very promising results characterized by a 17% possible energy gain after the adoption of the optimized layout. The study has also shown that the new positions of wind turbines characterized by a high rated power, are more on a forward position following the wind direction compared to the original ones. The study has also shown that there is a significant reduction of mechanical fatigue on the wind turbines blades.