I-Corps: Lidar-based Technology to Track and Control Wind Turbine Wake Trajectory

Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to enhance wind farm output by increasing the annual energy production through advanced turbine wake-control technologies. This will further enhance the benefits of wind energy and provide guidance in overcoming its challenges. According to the DOE's Wind Vision Report, wind power can be a cost-effective renewable energy source. At the land-based utility-scale, wind is one of the lowest-priced energy sources available today. It has employed 100,000 workers in 2016 and by 2050 it is expected to employ 600,000 workers. Furthermore, researchers estimate that wind power generation in 2013 reduced power-sector water consumption by 36.5 billion gallons. It has reduced the direct power sector carbon dioxide emission by 115 million metric tons, sulfur dioxide emission by 157,000 metric tons, and nitrogen oxides by 97,000 metric tons in 2013 alone. Searching the product-market fit will improve the possibility of incorporating wake-control technologies in the marketplace. Additional applications of this technology can be found in naval defense, where submarine wakes should be concealed, as well as airline traffic control, where airplane wakes need to be dispersed rapidly. This I-Corps project technology utilizes instantaneous wake location as a feedback input to a closed-loop control algorithm that manipulates available turbine parameters (such as pitch, speed, and power control) to steer the wake to a desired location. Individual wind turbine wake is a fundamental building block of the complex flow structure in a wind farm. It has been observed that an upwind turbine wake reduces downwind turbine power generation by 40%. As a result, wake control or manipulation provides an unprecedented opportunity to improve wind farm output as a whole, in contrast to the limited benefits of improving individual turbine efficiency. Texas Tech University's wake control algorithm can be incorporated in existing wind farms and can function by altering existing control parameters. This technology has been tested at the wind-tunnel based Hyper Accelerated Wake Kinematics Simulation (HAWKS) platform. The HAWKS platform is capable of emulating full-scale wake detection and steering. Such wake steering would potentially increase power generated by downwind turbines, increasing wind farm power generation as a whole. This increase in power generation increases revenue potential, especially in a grid-price bidding scenario for a low wind speed forecast. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.