Distributed wind resource assessment: Comparing measured annual energy production with predictions from computational fluid dynamics. Issue 6 (December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Martindale, Devon L; Acker, Thomas L
• Is Part Of: Wind engineering. Volume 43:Issue 6(2019)
• Page Start: 657
• Page End: 672
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Subjects: Wind energy -- wind resource assessment -- computational methods -- Meteodyn WT -- distributed wind energy conversion system -- annual energy production -- wind power prediction; Wind-pressure -- Periodicals; Winds -- Periodicals; Wind power -- Periodicals; Engineering meteorology -- Periodicals; Pression du vent; Vents; Énergie éolienne; Météorologie appliquée; Engineering meteorology; Wind power; Wind-pressure; Winds; Periodicals; 621.4505
• DOI: 10.1177/0309524X19846515
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0309-524X

Abstract

The US Department of Energy's Distributed Wind Resource Assessment Workshop identified predicting the annual energy production of a kilowatt-sized wind turbine as a key challenge. This article presents the methods and results for predicting the annual energy production of two 2.1 kW Skystream 3.7 wind turbines using computational fluid dynamics, in this case Meteodyn WT. When compared with actual production data, annual energy production values were uniformly underpredicted, with errors ranging from 1% to in excess of 30%, depending on the solver settings and boundary conditions. The most accurate of the simulations with errors consistently less than 10% were achieved when using recommended solver settings of neutral atmospheric stability, and roughness values derived from the US National Land Cover Database. The software was used to create an annual energy production map for the modeling domain, which could be a valuable tool in estimating the energy output and economic value of a proposed wind turbine.