In this report, the details of an investigation into the e ect of the low induction wind turbines on the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCoE) in a 1GW o shore wind farm is outlined. The 10 MW INNWIND.EU conventional wind turbine and its low induction variant, the 10 MW AVATAR wind turbine, are considered in a variety of 10x10 layout configurations. The Annual Energy Production (AEP) and cost of electrical infrastructure were determined using two in-house ECN software tools, namely FarmFlow and EEFarm II. Combining this information with a generalised cost model, the LCoE from these layouts were determined. The optimum LCoE for the AVATAR wind farm was determined to be 92.15 e/MWh while for the INNWIND.EU wind farm it was 93.85 e/MWh. Although the low induction wind farm o ered a marginally lower LCoE, it should not be considered as definitive due to simple nature of the cost model used. The results do indicate that the AVATAR wind farms require less space to achieve this similar cost performace, with a higher optimal wind farm power density (WFPD) of 3.7 MW/km2 compared to 3 MW/km2 for the INNWIND.EU based wind farm.
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Airborne wind energy (AWE) is an emerging renewable energy technology that uses kites to harvest winds at higher altitudes than wind turbines. Understanding how residents experience a local AWE system (AWES) is important as the technology approaches commercialization. Such knowledge can help adjust the design and deployment of an AWES to fit locals' needs better, thereby decreasing the technology's burden on people. Although the AWE literature claims that the technology affects nature and residents less than wind turbines, empirical evidence has been lacking. This first community acceptance study recruited residents within a 3.5 km radius of an AWE test site in Northern Germany. Using structured questionnaires, 54 residents rated the AWES and the closest wind farm on visual, sound, safety, siting, environmental, and ecological aspects. Contrary to the literature's claims, residents assessed the noise, ecological, and safety impacts similarly for the AWES and the wind farm. Only visual impacts were rated better for the AWES (e.g., no shadows were perceived). Consistent with research on wind turbines, residents who rated the site operation as fairer and the developer as more transparent tended to have more positive attitudes towards the AWES and to experience less noise annoyance. Consequently, recommendations for the AWE industry and policymakers include mitigating technology impacts and implementing evidence-based strategies to ensure just and effective project development. The findings are limited to one specific AWES using soft-wing kites. Future research should assess community responses across regions and different types of AWESs to test the findings' generalizability.
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With the effects of climate change linked to the use of fossil fuels, as well as the prospect of their eventual depletion, becoming more noticeable, political establishment and society appear ready to switch towards using renewable energy. Solar power and wind power are considered to be the most significant source of global low-carbon energy supply. Wind energy continues to expand as it becomes cheaper and more technologically advanced. Yet, despite these expectations and developments, fossil fuels still comprise nine-tenths of the global commercial energy supply. In this article, the history, technology, and politics involved in the production and barriers to acceptance of wind energy will be explored. The central question is why, despite the problems associated with the use of fossil fuels, carbon dependency has not yet given way to the more ecologically benign forms of energy. Having briefly surveyed some literature on the role of political and corporate stakeholders, as well as theories relating to sociological and psychological factors responsible for the grassroots’ resistance (“not in my backyard” or NIMBYs) to renewable energy, the findings indicate that motivation for opposition to wind power varies. While the grassroots resistance is often fueled by the mistrust of the government, the governments’ reason for resisting renewable energy can be explained by their history of a close relationship with the industrial partners. This article develops an argument that understanding of various motivations for resistance at different stakeholder levels opens up space for better strategies for a successful energy transition. https://doi.org/10.30560/sdr.v1n1p11 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Wind turbines are usually clustered in wind farms which causes the downstream turbines to operate in the turbulent wakes of upstream turbines. As turbulence is directly related to increased fatigue loads, knowledge of the turbulence in the wake and its evolution are important. Therefore, the main objective of this study is a comprehensive exploration of the turbulence evolution in the wind turbine’s wake to identify characteristic turbulence regions. For this, we present an experimental study of three model wind turbine wake scenarios that were scanned with hot-wire anemometry with a very high downstream resolution. The model wind turbine was exposed to three inflows: laminar inflow as a reference case, a central wind turbine wake, and half of the wake of an upstream turbine. A detailed turbulence analysis reveals four downstream turbulence regions by means of the mean velocity, variance, turbulence intensity, energy spectra, integral and Taylor length scales, and the Castaing parameter that indicates the intermittency, or gustiness, of turbulence. In addition, a wake core with features of homogeneous isotropic turbulence and a ring of high intermittency surrounding the wake can be identified. The results are important for turbulence modeling in wakes and optimization of wind farm wake control
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Wind turbine aerodynamics remains to be a central field in the development of wind turbines. It comprises several aspects, and methods to be understood really make the best use of it in today’s wind turbine and wind farm development. This chapter gives an overview of all aspects in wind energy aerodynamics covered within this book and the reasons why these aspects are covered. This way it already gives an overview for developers on all the issues wind turbine might face, when dealing with topics related to wind turbine aerodynamics.
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Thoroughly examines the measurement, modeling and design approaches of wind turbine and wind farm aerodynamicsIncludes outlooks on the promising topics for future researchContains contributions of internationally renowned experts
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Within the context of the Iliad project, the authors present technical challenges and the first results of having valid 3D scenes of (non-)existing offshore wind farms procedurally and automatically generated within either the Unreal or Unity game engine. The Iliad – Digital Twins of the Ocean project (EU Horizon 2020) aims to develop a ‘system of systems’ for creating cutting-edge digital twins of specific sea and ocean areas for diverse purposes related to their sustainable use and protection. One of the Iliad pilots addresses the topic of offshore floating wind farm construction or maintenance scenario testing and validation using the Unity 3D game engine. This work will speed up the development of these scenarios by procedurally and automatically creating the Unity 3D scene rather than manually (which is done at present). The main technical challenges concern the data-driven approach, in which a JSON configuration file drives the scene creation. The first results show a base wind farm running in Unreal 5.1. The final product will be able to handle environmental conditions, biological conditions, and specific human activities as input parameters.
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Citizen participation in local renewable energy projects is often promoted as many suppose it to be a panacea for the difficulties that are involved in the energy transition process. Quite evidently, it is not; there is a wide variety of visions, ideologies and interests related to an ‘energy transition’. Such a variety is actually a precondition for a stakeholder participation process, as stakeholder participation only makes sense if there is ‘something at stake’. Conflicting viewpoints, interests and debates are the essence of participation. The success of stakeholder participation implies that these differences are acknowledged, and discussed, and that this has created mutual understanding among stakeholders. It does not necessarily create ‘acceptance’. Renewable energy projects often give rise to local conflict. The successful implementation of local renewable energy systems depends on the support of the local social fabric. While at one hand decisions to construct wind turbines in specific regions trigger local resistance, the opposite also occurs! Solar parks sometimes create a similar variation: Various communities try to prevent the construction of solar parks in their vicinity, while other communities proudly present their parks. Altogether, local renewable energy initiatives create a rather chaotic picture, if regarded from the perspective of government planning. However, if we regard the successes, it appears the top down initiatives are most successful in areas with a weak social fabric, like industrial areas, or rather recently reclaimed land. Deeply rooted communities, virtually only have successful renewable energy projects that are more or less bottom up initiatives. This paper will first sketch why participation is important, and present a categorisation of processes and procedures that could be applied. It also sketches a number of myths and paradoxes that might occur in participation processes. ‘Compensating’ individuals and/or communities to accept wind turbines or solar parks is not sufficient to gain ‘acceptance’. A basic feature of many debates on local renewable energy projects is about ‘fairness’. The implication is that decision-making is neither on pros and cons of various renewable energy technologies as such, nor on what citizens are obliged to accept, but on a fair distribution of costs and benefits. Such discussions on fairness cannot be short cut by referring to legal rules, scientific evidence, or to standard financial compensations. History plays a role as old feelings of being disadvantaged, both at individual and at group level, might re-emerge in such debates. The paper will provide an overview of various local controversies on renewable energy initiatives in the Netherlands. It will argue that an open citizen participation process can be organized to work towards fair decisions, and that citizens should not be addressed as greedy subjects, trying to optimise their own private interests, but as responsible persons.
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Bij het onderzoek naar mogelijke effecten van een windmolenpark in het IJsselmeer is ETFI uitgegaan van de vele onderzoeken die er inmiddels, in Nederland maar ook internationaal, bestaan. Op deze manier zijn conclusies en oordelen, zowel geïnspireerd door voorvechters van windenergie als van tegenstanders, zowel bij geplande als bij reeds aangelegde windmolenparken, geïnventariseerd. De conclusie van dit literatuuronderzoek luidt dat de studies onvoldoende bewijs leveren, zowel voor het ontstaan van schade aan de toeristische sector als voor het ontbreken van die schade. Dit onderzoek moet dan ook niet gelezen worden als een aanbeveling vóór of tegen windmolenparken. De waarde van het onderzoek is dat het de publiek toegankelijke studies uit binnen en buitenland met betrekking tot de relatie tussen windparken en toerisme bijeen brengt en systematisch analyseert. Zodoende brengt het de risico’s en mogelijkheden beter in beeld zodat in alle scenario’s —met of zonder windmolens— afwegingen gemaakt kunnen worden waarin alle belangen gerespecteerd worden.
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