Wind Farm Layout Optimization Considering Commercial Turbine Selection and Hub Height Variation

Abstract

New aspects is added to the wind farm layout optimization problem. A variable hub height non-identical turbines wind farm design is presented. The manufacturers' technical data for 61 commercial horizontal axis wind turbine models is used in order to obtain more realistic results. Three objective functions are considered individually: (1) the total power production, (2) the farm capacity factor, and (3) the capital cost of output power index (based on nominal power and tower height). The results show that the flexibility of using non-identical turbines with different heights in the same wind farm can meet a wide range of preferences. By adapting the objective functions' weighting factors many preferred solutions can be obtained. Summary : The results show that the flexibility of using non-identical turbines with different heights in the same wind farm can meet a wide range of preferences. By adapting the objective functions' weighting factors many preferred solutions can be obtained. The enhancement of such flexible design on both TPP and CCI becomes more significant in limited land (small valued of S) and/or low wind class cases. This makes the presented design suitable for compact designs as well as the relatively low exergy sites.