Short-cut design of wind farms

The problem of designing wind parks has been addressed in terms of maximizing the economic benefits of such an investment. An appropriate mathematical model for wind turbines was used, taking into account their construction characteristics and operational performance. The regional wind field characteristics for a wide range of sites have been appropriately analyzed and a model involving significant physical parameters has been developed. The design problem was formulated as a mathematical programming problem, and solved using appropriate mathematical programming techniques. The optimization covered a wide range of site characteristics and four types of commercially available wind turbines. The methodology introduced a short-cut design empirical equation for the determination of the optimum number of wind turbines. The model is appropriate for regional planning purposes. Variation of unit cost of wind farm area introduced an additional degree of freedom to the problem and more efficient designs could be obtained.