Wind

US 'wake steering' first on Longroad wind farms points to big boost for ageing turbines

Technology developed by American outfit WindESCo returns 'initial positive results' from retrofitted turbines on two Utah wind farms

A Bald eagle flys at the US' National Wind Technology Center in Golden, Colorado
A Bald eagle flys at the US' National Wind Technology Center in Golden, ColoradoFoto: Dennis Schroeder / NREL

Tests of ‘wake steering’ – the technique of angling wind turbines fractionally away from the prevailing wind stream to boost energy capture – at a major onshore wind farm in the US have shown the potential for the technology to give a “significant” increase to power output from operating machines, according to Longroad Energy.

Trials at the developer’s 306MW Milford 1 and 2 wind plants in Utah of American outfit WindESCo’s Swarm technology, which was wired into 165 GE 1.5MW and Clipper 2.5MW turbines models, pointed to 3% increase in annual energy production (AEP) from the ten-year old farms, equal to a $1.2m boost to yearly revenue and $4.5M in net present value over five years.

“It’s no secret that as assets age they have a natural tendency to experience certain losses in efficiency. But that doesn’t have to be the end of the story,” said Jeremy Law, head of asset management at Longroad.

“We are committed to looking at innovative solutions that not only mitigate production loss, but actually reverse that direction of travel,” he added, noting Longroad was “comfortable that WindESCo will deliver that expected AEP gain”.

Collaboration between Longroad and WindESCo supported re-powering of the turbines. In addition to improving AEP through wake steering, the Swarm technology was said to have proved other benefits, including reduction of curtailment, optimisation of low wind resource, and protection against “extreme conditions that have become increasingly common due to climate change, thereby increasing asset life”.

Turbine wake –the turbulence behind the turbine rotor – can reduce the efficiency of machines downwind from a wind farm’s front row by up to 20%. according to some studies. “As wind energy installments have grown in turbine size and scale over the last several years, this problem has been exacerbated,” said WindESCo CEO Mo Dua.

Duo added that the “positive initial results” from the Milford project demonstrate that “large-scale wake steering is possible as a retrofit solution for older assets, while also proving feasibility for Swarm to support the expanding global fleet of wind turbines offshore”, where wake is a particular concern, including those along the US Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
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Published 2 March 2023, 14:30Updated 3 March 2023, 17:26
AmericasUSLongroad EnergyUtah