Meso-Scale CFD Simulation for Wind Resources: A Case Study of Complex Mountainous Terrain

Abstract

Land based site selection for a wind farm has some challenging criteria, namely, cost for electricity generation and distribution, acquiring ownership of the site, potential barriers from various laws and permits, security concerns, access issues, feasibility of accommodation, etc. However, wind resource assessment deems the first criterion to rule out a site before other criteria can play roles in the selection process. In this paper, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study has been performed on a complex mountainous terrain near a shore in the west coast of the US to assess the wind resource in order to spot potential suitable sites for wind turbines. Average wind speed at a height of 10 m at the centre (44°22 ′ 12.0 ′ ′ N, 123°59 ′ 24.0 ′ ′ W) of the chosen region under study has been compared with the simulated data for validation. Results from the study, which yields a continuous map of flow field variables, have revealed much more detailed features than the available state-wise wind maps. For example, it has revealed as high as 147% variation in wind speeds and 438% in wind power, making it possible to choose suitable sites without the need for, or perhaps in advance of, expensive direct measurements. This type of analysis may help in preliminary assessments and expedite the site selection process.

Keywords

• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Open Field Operation And Manipulation
• OpenFOAM
• wind resource
• site selection
• wind turbine
• wind map