TY - JOUR

T1 - Wake properties and power output of very large wind farms for different meteorological conditions and turbine spacings

T2 - A large-eddy simulation case study for the German Bight

AU - Maas, Oliver

AU - Raasch, Siegfried

N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgements. The work was supported by the North German Supercomputing Alliance (HLRN). We thank Thomas Spangehl (German Weather Service) for providing the figures in the Appendix. Special thanks goes to Christopher Mount for English proofreading and to Dries Allaerts for informative discussions about wind-farm-induced gravity waves.

PY - 2022/3/25

Y1 - 2022/3/25

N2 - Germany's expansion target for offshore wind power capacity of 40 GW by the year 2040 can only be reached if large portions of the Exclusive Economic Zone in the German Bight are equipped with wind farms. Because these wind farm clusters will be much larger than existing wind farms, it is unknown how they will affect the boundary layer flow and how much power they will produce. The objective of this large-eddy simulation study is to investigate the wake properties and the power output of very large potential wind farms in the German Bight for different turbine spacings, stabilities and boundary layer heights. The results show that very large wind farms cause flow effects that small wind farms do not. These effects include, but are not limited to, inversion layer displacement, counterclockwise flow deflection inside the boundary layer and clockwise flow deflection above the boundary layer. Wakes of very large wind farms are longer for shallower boundary layers and smaller turbine spacings, reaching values of more than 100 km. The wake in terms of turbulence intensity is approximately 20 km long, in which longer wakes occur for convective boundary layers and shorter wakes for stable boundary layers. Very large wind farms in a shallow, stable boundary layer can excite gravity waves in the overlying free atmosphere, resulting in significant flow blockage. The power output of very large wind farms is higher for thicker boundary layers because thick boundary layers contain more kinetic energy than thin boundary layers. The power density of the energy input by the geostrophic pressure gradient limits the power output of very large wind farms. Because this power density is very low (approximately 2 W m-2), the installed power density of very large wind farms should be small to achieve a good wind farm efficiency.

AB - Germany's expansion target for offshore wind power capacity of 40 GW by the year 2040 can only be reached if large portions of the Exclusive Economic Zone in the German Bight are equipped with wind farms. Because these wind farm clusters will be much larger than existing wind farms, it is unknown how they will affect the boundary layer flow and how much power they will produce. The objective of this large-eddy simulation study is to investigate the wake properties and the power output of very large potential wind farms in the German Bight for different turbine spacings, stabilities and boundary layer heights. The results show that very large wind farms cause flow effects that small wind farms do not. These effects include, but are not limited to, inversion layer displacement, counterclockwise flow deflection inside the boundary layer and clockwise flow deflection above the boundary layer. Wakes of very large wind farms are longer for shallower boundary layers and smaller turbine spacings, reaching values of more than 100 km. The wake in terms of turbulence intensity is approximately 20 km long, in which longer wakes occur for convective boundary layers and shorter wakes for stable boundary layers. Very large wind farms in a shallow, stable boundary layer can excite gravity waves in the overlying free atmosphere, resulting in significant flow blockage. The power output of very large wind farms is higher for thicker boundary layers because thick boundary layers contain more kinetic energy than thin boundary layers. The power density of the energy input by the geostrophic pressure gradient limits the power output of very large wind farms. Because this power density is very low (approximately 2 W m-2), the installed power density of very large wind farms should be small to achieve a good wind farm efficiency.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127826229&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.5194/wes-7-715-2022

DO - 10.5194/wes-7-715-2022

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85127826229

VL - 7

SP - 715

EP - 739

JO - Wind Energy Science

JF - Wind Energy Science

SN - 2366-7443

IS - 2

ER -