Wind farm

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Wind park
)

The San Gorgonio Pass wind farm in California, United States.
The Gansu Wind Farm in China is the largest wind farm in the world, with a target capacity of 20,000 MW by 2020.

A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant,[1] is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an extensive area. Wind farms can be either onshore or offshore.

Many of the largest operational onshore wind farms are located in China, India, and the United States. For example, the

MW by 2012,[2] with a goal of 20,000 MW[3] by 2020.[4] As of December 2020, the 1218 MW Hornsea Wind Farm in the UK is the largest offshore wind farm in the world.[5] Individual wind turbine designs continue to increase in power
, resulting in fewer turbines being needed for the same total output.

Because they require no fuel, wind farms have less impact on the environment than many other forms of power generation and are often referred to as a good source of

habitat loss, and a drop in tourism. Some critics claim that wind farms have adverse health effects, but most researchers consider these claims to be pseudoscience (see wind turbine syndrome). Wind farms can interfere with radar, although in most cases, according to the US Department of Energy, "siting and other mitigations have resolved conflicts and allowed wind projects to co-exist effectively with radar".[6]

Siting considerations

Location is critical to the overall success of a wind farm. Additional conditions contributing to a successful wind farm location include: wind conditions, access to electric transmission, physical access, and local electricity prices.

Wind conditions

Map of available wind power over the United States. Colour codes indicate wind power density class

The faster the average wind speed, the more electricity the wind turbine will generate, so faster winds are generally economically better for wind farm developments.[7] The balancing factor is that strong gusts and high turbulence require stronger more expensive turbines, otherwise there is a risk of damage. The average power in the wind is not proportional to the average wind speed. For this reason, the ideal wind conditions would be strong but consistent winds with low turbulence coming from a single direction.

Mountain passes are ideal locations for wind farms under these conditions. Mountain passes channel wind, blocked by mountains, through a tunnel like pass towards areas of lower pressure and flatter land.[8] Passes used for wind farms like the San Gorgonio Pass and Altamont Pass are known for their abundant wind resource capacity and capability for large-scale wind farms. These types of passes were the first places in the 1980s to have heavily invested large-scale wind farms after approval for wind energy development by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. From these wind farms, developers learned a lot about turbulence and crowding effects of large-scale wind projects, which were previously unresearched, in the U.S. due to the lack of operational wind farms large enough to conduct these types of studies.[9]

Usually sites are screened on the basis of a wind atlas, and validated with on-site wind measurements via long term or permanent meteorological-tower data using anemometers and wind vanes. Meteorological wind data alone is usually not sufficient for accurate siting of a large wind power project. Collection of site specific data for wind speed and direction is crucial to determining site potential[10][11] in order to finance the project.[12] Local winds are often monitored for a year or more, detailed wind maps are constructed, along with rigorous grid capability studies conducted, before any wind generators are installed.

The wind blows faster at higher altitudes because of the reduced influence of drag. The increase in velocity with altitude is most dramatic near the surface and is affected by topography, surface roughness, and upwind obstacles such as trees or buildings. At altitudes of thousands of feet/hundreds of metres above sea level, the power in the wind decreases proportional to the decrease in air density.[13]

Electricity grid considerations

Part of the Biglow Canyon Wind Farm, Oregon, United States with a turbine under construction

Often in heavily saturated energy markets, the first step in site selection for large-scale wind projects, before wind resource data collection, is finding areas with adequate available transfer capability (ATC). ATC is the measure of the remaining capacity in a transmission system available for further integration of two interconnected areas without significant upgrades to existing transmission lines and substations. Significant equipment upgrades have substantial costs, potentially undermining the viability of a project within a location, regardless of wind resource availability.[14] Once a list of capable areas is constructed, the list is refined based on long term wind measurements, among other environmental or technical limiting factors such as proximity to load and land procurement.

Many independent system operators (ISOs) in the United States such as the California ISO and Midcontinent ISO use interconnection request queues to allow developers to propose a new generation for a specific given area and grid interconnection.[15] These request queues have both deposit costs at the time of request and ongoing costs for the studies the ISO will make for up to years after the request was submitted to ascertain the viability of the interconnection due to factors such as ATC.[16] Larger corporations who can afford to bid the most queues will most likely have market power as to which sites with the most resource and opportunity get to be developed upon. After the deadline to request a place in the queue has passed, many firms will withdraw their requests after gauging the competition in order to make back some of the deposit for each request that is determined too risky in comparison to other larger firms' requests.

Design

Turbine spacing

A major factor in wind-farm design is the spacing between the turbines, both laterally and axially (with respect to the prevailing winds). The closer the turbines are together, the more the upwind turbines block wind from their rear neighbors (wake effect). However, spacing turbines far apart increases the costs of roads and cables, and raises the amount of land needed to install a specific capacity of turbines. As a result of these factors, turbine spacing varies by site. Generally speaking, manufacturers require a minimum of 3.5 times the turbine's rotor diameter of clear space between each adjacent turbine's respective spatial envelope.

Closer spacing is possible depending on the turbine model, the conditions at the site, and how the site will be operated.[citation needed] Airflows slow down as they approach an obstacle, known as the 'blockage effect', reducing available wind power by 2% for the turbines in front of other turbines.[17][18]

Onshore

An aerial view of Whitelee Wind Farm, the largest onshore wind farm in the UK and second-largest in Europe
Roscoe Wind Farm An onshore wind farm in West Texas

The capacity of the world's first wind farm was 0.6 MW, produced by 20 wind turbines rated at 30 kilowatts each, installed on the shoulder of Crotched Mountain in southern New Hampshire in December 1980.[19][20]

World's largest onshore wind farms
Wind farm Present
capacity
(
MW
)
Country Notes
Gansu Wind Farm 8,000 China [2][21][22][23]

[24]

Zhang Jiakou 3,000 China [21]
Urat Zhongqi, Bayannur City 2,100 China [21]
M’Intyre & Herries Range QLD 2,023 Australia [21]
Markbygden Wind Farm 2,000 Sweden
Hami Wind Farm 2,000 China [21]
Damao Qi, Baotou City 1,600 China [21]
Muppandal Wind farm 1,500 India [25]
Alta (Oak Creek-Mojave) 1,320 United States [26]
Complexo Eólico Lagoa dos Ventos 1,112 Brazil [27]
Jaisalmer Wind Park 1,064 India
Complexo Eólico Rio do Vento 1,038 Brazil [28]
Hongshagang, Town, Minqin County 1,000 China [21]
Kailu, Tongliao 1,000 China [21]
Chengde 1,000 China [21]
Shepherds Flat Wind Farm 845 United States
Meadow Lake Wind Farm 801 United States [29][30]
Roscoe Wind Farm 781.5 United States [31]
Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center 735.5 United States [32][33]
Capricorn Ridge Wind Farm 662.5 United States [32][33]
Fântânele-Cogealac Wind Farm 600 Romania [34]
Fowler Ridge Wind Farm 599.8 United States [29]
Sweetwater Wind Farm 585.3 United States [32]
Complexo Eólico Chuí 582 Brazil [35]
Zarafara Wind Farm 545 Egypt [36]
Whitelee Wind Farm 539 United Kingdom
Buffalo Gap Wind Farm 523.3 United States [32][33]
Dabancheng Wind Farm 500 China [37]
Panther Creek Wind Farm 458 United States [33]

Onshore turbine installations in hilly or mountainous regions tend to be on ridges generally three kilometres or more inland from the nearest shoreline. This is done to exploit the topographic acceleration as the wind accelerates over a ridge. The additional wind speeds gained in this way can increase energy produced because more wind goes through the turbines. The exact position of each turbine matters, because a difference of 30 metre could potentially double output. This careful placement is referred to as 'micro-siting'.

Offshore