Integrated floating wind farm layout design and mooring system optimization to increase annual energy production

Journal Article · Mon Jun 10 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · Journal of Physics. Conference Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2767/6/062020· OSTI ID:2396308

Mahfouz, Mohammad Youssef ^[1]; Lozon, Ericka ^[2]; Hall, Matthew ^[2]; Cheng, Po Wen ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Stuttgart (Germany)
2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

As we cluster wind turbines in wind farms to gain energy from sites with high wind speeds, wake losses occur within the wind farm. Wake loss is a term used to describe the lower energy production of a downwind turbine that is totally or partially in the wake of an upwind turbine. To decrease wake losses inside the wind farm, the wind farm’s layout is optimized. However, a variety of factors constrain the wind farm layout optimization, such as the size of the lease area relative to the number of turbines to be placed, or the shape of the lease area. Therefore, many wind farms end up with a regular grid layout, such as the Horns Rev 1 wind farm in the North Sea. The ability of a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) to change its position based on the wind direction and its mooring system design presents an opportunity to further decrease wake losses in floating wind farms. In this work, we integrate the design of the FOWT mooring systems with the floating wind farm layout design with the goal of increasing the farm’s annual energy production. We use the Horns Rev 1 wind farm as a case study to demonstrate our method. The results show that allowing the FOWT to relocate can decrease wake losses up to 18%. Moreover, the newly developed mooring systems are less stiff and therefore allow larger motion of the FOWT; hence, the material cost of the mooring system decreases by an estimated 17%.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
• Grant/Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 2396308
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA--5000-88738; MainId:89517; UUID:71710e42-6d1d-438b-bc88-18a044521a47; MainAdminId:71932
• Journal Information: Journal of Physics. Conference Series, Journal Name: Journal of Physics. Conference Series Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 2767; ISSN 1742-6588
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
floating offshore wind
moorings
wakes