2010/10/18 by John O. Dabiri, Dabiri, John O. · 4 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Aerospace Engineering and Energy Systems #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Icing and De-icing Technologies #Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy #Wind Energy Research and Development #Wind and Air Flow Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1010.3656
openalex publication_date 2010/10/18 · openalex created_date 2022/09/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Modern wind farms comprised of horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) require\nsignificant land resources to separate each wind turbine from the adjacent\nturbine wakes. This aerodynamic constraint limits the amount of power that can\nbe extracted from a given wind farm footprint. The resulting inefficiency of\nHAWT farms is currently compensated by using taller wind turbines to access\ngreater wind resources at high altitudes, but this solution comes at the\nexpense of higher engineering costs and greater visual, acoustic, radar and\nenvironmental impacts. We investigated the use of counter-rotating\nvertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) in order to achieve higher power output per\nunit land area than existing wind farms consisting of HAWTs. Full-scale field\ntests of 10-m tall VAWTs in various counter-rotating configurations were\nconducted under natural wind conditions during summer 2010. Whereas modern wind\nfarms consisting of HAWTs produce 2 to 3 watts of power per square meter of\nland area, these field tests indicate that power densities an order of\nmagnitude greater can potentially be achieved by arranging VAWTs in layouts\nthat enable them to extract energy from adjacent wakes and from above the wind\nfarm. Moreover, this improved performance does not require higher individual\nwind turbine efficiency, only closer wind turbine spacing and a sufficient\nvertical flux of turbulence kinetic energy from the atmospheric surface layer.\nThe results suggest an alternative approach to wind farming that has the\npotential to concurrently reduce the cost, size, and environmental impacts of\nwind farms.\n