Conference: Building on the promise of wind energy through advances in turbulence

Portland State University, Portland OR

Investigators

Abstract

Meeting global warming targets requires a roughly three-fold increase in wind energy installation by 2030. Achieving this growth will require a rapid increase in the number, size and capacity of wind farms and installations in locations and operation under conditions that will push the limits of our current understanding. The goal of the proposed symposium is to bring the wind energy and turbulence communities together to discuss the advances in wind farm science needed to meet these challenges. Close interaction among these communities is critical in this regard, as fluid turbulence plays a fundamental role in wind farms over scales ranging from blade aerodynamics and structural loading of individual turbines to the interactions between the turbulent flow in the wind farm array and the atmospheric boundary layer. The symposium will focus on advancing the understanding of turbulence in wind farms. It will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The NSF support will aid in costs for graduate students and junior faculty to attend the symposium. The proposed symposium will have strong scientific and educational impacts as it seeks to provide a unique cross-disciplinary environment for identifying the current issues and new challenges associated with the role of turbulence in wind energy for the next quarter century. The symposium will bring together students and faculty experts to discuss state-of-the-art turbulence/wind energy research using a range of approaches including modeling, experiments, and simulations. Active participation of graduate students and junior researchers will engage the next generation of scientists/engineers to tackle problems in these areas; and to develop strategies and new initiatives for addressing the remaining challenges to reaching the ambitious goals needed to meet climate goals. Peer-reviewed contributions will be collected through a special topics volume in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy. 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.