What’s new in wake-effect research for wind farms

Size matters when optimizing for wind-turbine production. Taller towers with longer blades typically capture greater, stronger winds for power generation. However, turbine size is only one important feature of a successful wind farm. Siting and turbine placement at a wind site is also critical. And according to researchers at UC Santa Barbara, wind turbines rarely “play well with others.” “We’ve been designing turbines for use by themselves, but we almost never use them by themselves anymore,” said UC Santa Barbara mechanical engineering professor Paolo Luzzatto-Fegiz. (Source: Phys.org). Developers have been aware for some time that turbine spacing and overall wind-farm layouts may reduce efficiency and production of a project of the wake effect. This means that the impact of wind speed on a turbine will influence and reduce the effects of wind on those turbines that come after it.