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FLOWERS AEP: an analytical model for wind farm layout optimization
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  • Michael LoCascio,
  • Christopher Bay,
  • Luis A. Martínez-Tossas,
  • Majid Bastankhah,
  • Catherine Gorle
Michael LoCascio
Stanford University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Corresponding Author:locascio@stanford.edu

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Christopher Bay
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
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Luis A. Martínez-Tossas
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
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Majid Bastankhah
Durham University Department of Engineering
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Catherine Gorle
Stanford University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Abstract

Annual energy production (AEP) is commonly used in objective functions for wind farm layout optimization. AEP is proportional to wind farm power production integrated over an annual distribution of free-stream wind conditions. Physics-based estimates of wind farm power production typically rely on low-fidelity engineering wake models that approximate the steady-state wind farm flow field. AEP estimates are then obtained by performing independent simulations for discrete wind conditions and using rectangular quadrature to account for each condition’s expected frequency of occurrence. Depending on the number of simulated discrete wind conditions, this numerical integral could be hampered by poor accuracy or high computational costs. The FLOWERS AEP model instead poses an analytical integral of the engineering wake model over the variable wind conditions, yielding a closed-form, analytical function for wind farm AEP. This paper derives the analytical functions for FLOWERS AEP and its derivatives with respect to turbine position, which are useful for gradient-based wind farm layout optimization, in non-dimensional form. We then analyze the benefits of the FLOWERS AEP model over conventional reference models, focusing on its low cost, adequate wake loss predictions, and smooth design space. We find that FLOWERS predicts AEP within about 10% of the baseline AEP models in less than 10% of the computational time. Furthermore, we illustrate how the FLOWERS design space at relatively low resolution is qualitatively similar to the reference and yields comparable optimal layouts.
Submitted to Wind Energy
07 May 2024Assigned to Editor
07 May 2024Submission Checks Completed
15 May 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned
19 Jun 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
23 Jun 2024Editorial Decision: Revise Major
08 Jul 20241st Revision Received
13 Jul 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned
08 Aug 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
01 Sep 2024Editorial Decision: Accept