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Active Wind Farms: Optimization and Control of Atmospheric Energy Extraction in Gigawatt Wind Farms
Start date:2012-10-01
End date:2017-09-30
Project Acronym:ACTIVEWINDFARMS
Project status:Execution
Coordinator
| Organization name:KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN | |
| Administrative contact | Address |
|
Name:Sarah |
Oude Markt LEUVEN BELGIQUE-BELGIË Region:VLAAMS GEWEST VLAAMS BRABANT Leuven |
| Tel:+32-16320611 | |
| Fax:+32-16326515 | |
| E-mail:Contact | |
| URL:http://www.kuleuven.be | Organization Type: |
Description
Objective:
With the recognition that wind energy will become an important contributor to the worlds energy portfolio, several wind farms with a capacity of over 1 gigawatt are in planning phase. In the past, engineering of wind farms focused on a bottom-up approach, in which atmospheric wind availability was considered to be fixed by climate and weather. However, farms of gigawatt size slow down the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) as a whole, reducing the availability of wind at turbine hub height. In Denmarks large off-shore farms, this leads to underperformance of turbines which can reach levels of 40%50% compared to the same turbine in a lone-standing case. For large wind farms, the vertical structure and turbulence physics of the flow in the ABL become crucial ingredients in their design and operation.
This introduces a new set of scientific challenges related to the design and control of large wind farms. The major ambition of the present research proposal is to employ optimal control techniques to control the interaction between large wind farms and the ABL, and optimize overall farm-power extraction. Individual turbines are used as flow actuators by dynamically pitching their blades using time scales ranging between 10 to 500 seconds. The application of such control efforts on the atmospheric boundary layer has never been attempted before, and introduces flow control on a physical scale which is currently unprecedented. The PI possesses a unique combination of expertise and tools enabling these developments: efficient parallel large-eddy simulations of wind farms, multi-scale turbine modelling, and gradient-based optimization in large optimization-parameter spaces using adjoint formulations. To ensure a maximum impact on the wind-engineering field, the project aims at optimal control, experimental wind-tunnel validation, and at including multi-disciplinary aspects, related to structural mechanics, power quality, and controller design.
Achievements:
General information:
Project Details
Start date:2012-10-01
End date:2017-09-30
Duration:60 months
Project Reference:306471
Project cost:1499241 EURO
Project Funding:1499241 EURO
Programme Acronym:
FP7-IDEAS-ERC
Programme type:Seventh Framework Programme
Subprogramme Area:ERC Starting Grant - Products and process engineering
Contract type:ERC Starting Grant
URL:
Subject index:Earth Sciences
Other participants
Record control number:104435
