Coupling Doppler radar‐derived wind maps with operational turbine data to document wind farm complex flows

The first known dual-Doppler (DD) measurements collected within a utility-scale wind farm are presented. Various complex flow features are discussed, including detailed analyses of turbine wakes, turbine-to-turbine interaction, high wind speed channels that exist between individual wakes and intermittent gust propagation. The data have been collected using innovative mobile Doppler radar technologies, which allows for a large observational footprint of ~17 km2 in the presented analyses while maintaining spatial resolution of 0.49° in the azimuthal dimension by 15 m in the along-beam range dimension. The presented DD syntheses provide three-dimensional fields of the horizontal wind speed and direction with a revisit time of approximately 1 min. DD wind fields are validated with operational turbine data and are successfully used to accurately project composite power output for several turbines. The employed radar technologies, deployment schemes, scanning strategies and subsequent analysis methodologies offer the potential to contribute to the validation and improvement of current wake modeling efforts that influence wind farm design and layout practices, enhanced resource assessment campaigns, and provide real-time wind maps to drive ‘smart’ wind farm operation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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