Turbulent kinetic energy over large offshore wind farms observed and simulated by the mesoscale model WRF (3.8.1)
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- Karlsruhe Inst. of Technology (KIT) Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany). IMK-IFU
- Univ. of Tübingen (Germany)
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences; National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Inst. of Coastal Research, Geesthacht (Germany)
- Technische Univ. Braunschweig (Germany)
- UL-DEWI Gmbh, Oldenburg (Germany)
Abstract. Wind farms affect local weather and microclimates;hence, parameterizations of their effects have been developed for numerical weather prediction models.While most wind farm parameterizations (WFPs) include drag effects of wind farms, models differ on whether or not an additionalturbulent kinetic energy (TKE) source should be included in theseparameterizations to simulate the impact of wind farms on the boundary layer.Therefore, we use aircraft measurements above large offshore wind farms in stable conditions to evaluateWFP choices. Of the three case studies we examine, we find the simulated ambient backgroundflow to agree with observations of temperature stratification and winds. This agreement allows us toexplore the sensitivity of simulated wind farm effects with respect to modeling choicessuch as whether or not to include a TKE source, horizontal resolution, vertical resolutionand advection of TKE. For a stably stratified marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL), a TKE source and a horizontal resolutionon the order of 5 km or finer are necessary to represent the impact of offshore wind farms on the MABL.Additionally, TKE advection results in excessively reduced TKE over the wind farms, which in turn causesan underestimation of the wind speed deficit above the wind farm. Furthermore, using fine verticalresolution increases the agreement of the simulated wind speed with satellite observations of surface wind speed.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind and Water Technologies Office (EE-4W)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1606121
- Report Number(s):
- NREL-JA-5000-75874
- Journal Information:
- Geoscientific Model Development (Online), Vol. 13, Issue 1; ISSN 1991-9603
- Publisher:
- European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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