A STOCHASTIC-OPTIMIZATION MODEL FOR DETERMINING THE OPTIMAL MICRO-SITING OF WIND TURBINES

Abstract

We propose a general model for the placement of wind turbines in a rectangular grid formation over a flat area. For better realism, we consider stochastic wind speeds and directions, in conjunction with the wake effects that upstream turbines impose on downstream ones. The objective is to pack as many turbines as economically optimal in a given area, i.e. to maximize the expected MW output per dollar of capital investment and O&M costs per meter square. Due to the complex structure of the mathematical model, we apply a hybrid approach of MonteCarlo sampling of wind speeds and directions together with the Nelder-Mead heuristic method to search for the optimal horizontal and vertical spacing of the turbines. Results of a case study based on a real dataset of wind speeds and directions, a selected commercial turbine’s approximated power curve, and industry estimates of costs is discussed

Keywords

• wind energy, wind power, wind investment, micro-siting, wake effect

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