Wind farm control: Addressing the aerodynamic interaction among wind turbines

Wind farms help reduce the average wind cost of energy due to many economies of scale compared to individual turbines located far from each other. However, these groupings introduce the problem of aerodynamic interaction among turbines, which can decrease the total energy converted to electricity compared to the same number of isolated turbines operating under the same wind inflow conditions. In this paper, we describe a simulation model under development to examine the aerodynamic interaction among turbines and increase the total energy captured by an array of turbines. We then discuss various control strategies to maximize the energy capture for wind farms containing multiple turbines.