In:
Wind Energy Science, Copernicus GmbH, Vol. 7, No. 6 ( 2022-11-28), p. 2307-2334
Abstract:
Abstract. With the increasing level of offshore wind energy
investment, it is correspondingly important to be able to accurately
characterize the wind resource in terms of energy potential as well as
operating conditions affecting wind plant performance, maintenance, and
lifespan. Accurate resource assessment at a particular site supports
investment decisions. Following construction, accurate wind forecasts are needed
to support efficient power markets and integration of wind power with the
electrical grid. To optimize the design of wind turbines, it is necessary to
accurately describe the environmental characteristics, such as precipitation
and waves, that erode turbine surfaces and generate structural loads as a
complicated response to the combined impact of shear, atmospheric
turbulence, and wave stresses. Despite recent considerable progress both in
improvements to numerical weather prediction models and in coupling these
models to turbulent flows within wind plants, major challenges remain,
especially in the offshore environment. Accurately simulating the
interactions among winds, waves, wakes, and their structural interactions
with offshore wind turbines requires accounting for spatial (and associated
temporal) scales from O(1 m) to O(100 km). Computing capabilities for the
foreseeable future will not be able to resolve all of these scales
simultaneously, necessitating continuing improvement in subgrid-scale
parameterizations within highly nonlinear models. In addition, observations
to constrain and validate these models, especially in the rotor-swept area
of turbines over the ocean, remains largely absent. Thus, gaining sufficient
understanding of the physics of atmospheric flow within and around wind
plants remains one of the grand challenges of wind energy, particularly in
the offshore environment. This paper provides a review of prominent scientific challenges to
characterizing the offshore wind resource using as examples phenomena that
occur in the rapidly developing wind energy areas off the United States.
Such phenomena include horizontal temperature gradients that lead to strong
vertical stratification; consequent features such as low-level jets and
internal boundary layers; highly nonstationary conditions, which occur with
both extratropical storms (e.g., nor'easters) and tropical storms; air–sea
interaction, including deformation of conventional wind profiles by the wave
boundary layer; and precipitation with its contributions to leading-edge
erosion of wind turbine blades. The paper also describes the current state
of modeling and observations in the marine atmospheric boundary layer and
provides specific recommendations for filling key current knowledge gaps.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2366-7451
DOI:
10.5194/wes-7-2307-2022
Language:
English
Publisher:
Copernicus GmbH
Publication Date:
2022
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2846783-8
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