Applications of Systems Engineering to the Research, Design, and Development of Wind Energy Systems

This paper surveys the landscape of systems engineering methods and current wind modeling capabilities to assess the potential for development of a systems engineering to wind energy research, design, and development. Wind energy has evolved from a small industry in a few countries to a large international industry involving major organizations in the manufacturing, development, and utility sectors. Along with this growth, significant technology innovation has led to larger turbines with lower associated costs of energy and ever more complex designs for all major subsystems - from the rotor, hub, and tower to the drivetrain, electronics, and controls. However, as large-scale deployment of the technology continues and its contribution to electricity generation becomes more prominent, so have the expectations of the technology in terms of performance and cost. For the industry to become a sustainable source of electricity, innovation in wind energy technology must continue to improve performance and lower the cost of energy while supporting seamless integration of wind generation into the electric grid without significant negative impacts on local communities and environments. At the same time, issues associated with wind energy research, design, and development are noticeably increasing in complexity. The industry would benefit from an integrated approach that simultaneously addresses turbine design, plant design and development, grid interaction and operation, and mitigation of adverse community and environmental impacts. These activities must be integrated in order to meet this diverse set of goals while recognizing trade-offs that exist between them. While potential exists today to integrate across different domains within the wind energy system design process, organizational barriers such as different institutional objectives and the importance of proprietary information have previously limited a system level approach to wind energy research, design, and development. To address these challenges, NREL has embarked on an initiative to evaluate how methods of systems engineering can be applied to the research, design and development of wind energy systems. Systems engineering is a field within engineering with a long history of research and application to complex technical systems in domains such as aerospace, automotive, and naval architecture. As such, the field holds potential for addressing critical issues that face the wind industry today. This paper represents a first step for understanding this potential through a review of systems engineering methods as applied to related technical systems. It illustrates how this might inform a Wind Energy Systems Engineering (WESE) approach to the research, design, and development needs for the future of the industry. Section 1 provides a brief overview of systems engineering and wind as a complex system. Section 2 describes these system engineering methods in detail. Section 3 provides an overview of different types of design tools for wind energy with emphasis on NREL tools. Finally, Section 4 provides an overview of the role and importance of software architecture and computing to the use of systems engineering methods and the future development of any WESE programs. Section 5 provides a roadmap of potential research integrating systems engineering research methodologies and wind energy design tools for a WESE framework.