Initial results from a field campaign of wake steering applied at a commercial wind farm – Part 1

Abstract

Wake steering is a form of wind farm control in which turbines use yaw offsets to affect wakes in order to yield an increase in total energy production. In this first phase of a study of wake steering at a commercial wind farm, two turbines implement a schedule of offsets. Results exploring the observed performance of wake steering are presented and some first lessons learned. For two closely spaced turbines, an approximate 14 % increase in energy was measured on the downstream turbine over a 10∘ sector, with a 4 % increase in energy production of the combined upstream–downstream turbine pair. Finally, the influence of atmospheric stability over the results is explored.