Design of Wind Farms

Credits:

4 ECTS

Instructor:

Carlo L. Bottasso, Hadi Hooghooghi

Course Syllabus:

The course aims at developing a multi-disciplinary optimization design exercise for wind farms. The first goal of the praktikum is to offer a review of wind energy basics and statistics, as well as a detailed presentation of the development of a wind farm project, wind turbine wake behavior, wake models, and wind farm control. Then, students will gain the ability to perform simulations of wind farms, with a specific focus on the wake behavior, by using the open-source code FLORIS which is a controls-focused wind farm simulation software developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Thirdly, students will evaluate the performance of a wind farm, conduct cost analyses using the open-source code LandBOSSE developed by NREL, and process and interpret the results of simulations. Finally, students will become able to define the steps of design of a wind farm and set up the basis for an optimization process. Students will be asked to develop small week assignments in order to build up their technical knowledge in preparation for the last larger assignment. The last assignment consists of setting up a wind farm design process to optimize the layout and minimize the cost of wind energy.

Learning Outcomes:

After successfully completing the course, students will have an understanding of the modern methods to design wind farms from a practical point of view. They will have knowledge of wind farm design criteria and wake effects, and they will be able to conduct a performance analysis combined with the layout and cost optimization of wind farms. The work of the students will be conducted both on an individual basis and in small teams and students will need to be able to subdivide the different activities for efficient output of the work.

Course Format:

Learning method: In addition to the individual methods of the students' consolidated knowledge is aspired by repeated lessons in exercises and tutorials.

Teaching method:

  • 4 introductory frontal theoretical lectures of 45 min
  • 3 sessions of 45 min each to present and explain the various design activities and software
  • 6 exercise sessions of 45 min each using computers, with discussion and correction of 4 preliminary assignments
  • 3 last assistance sessions of 2.25 hours each to help in developing the last exercise design
  • Final evaluation session with results discussion
  • Work will be conducted in small groups of 3-4 people

Course Material:

Course material will be provided by the instructor. Additional recommended literature: