Call Us: (337) 889-0220
Visit Us On TwitterVisit Us On FacebookVisit Us On YoutubeVisit Us On LinkedinCheck Our FeedVisit Us On Instagram

AWAKEN Project Could Synchronize Offshore Wind Technology for Dramatically Greater Energy Output

AWAKEN Project Could Synchronize Offshore Wind Technology for Dramatically Greater Energy Output

What if offshore wind turbines could work in concert, like musicians in an orchestra?  The U.S. Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office recently reported on a project taking shape that could do just that. 

As momentum for clean energy and offshore wind continues to build across the United States, new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded efforts are underway to dramatically increase the maximum amount of electricity wind farms can produce when operating at full capacity.  Just like the orchestra example, finely tuned and synchronized wind energy instruments are the key to propelling the technology and energy output forward.

Turbine placement—either within a single wind farm or across several—can impact wind speed and the amount of power downwind turbines can produce. This is known as the “wake effect,” or the change in the flow of wind after it interacts with a wind turbine or plant. 

Two recent projects funded by DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office are helping the wind energy industry expand its power-production capacity. 

The American WAKE experimeNt (AWAKEN) is compiling the world’s largest and most comprehensive dataset on wind energy atmospheric phenomena, detailing how wind and surrounding air particles interact with wind turbines and wind farms. This dataset could be used to improve the flow of wind through the average wind power plant and boost potential electricity output by 5%―enough to power approximately 4,000 homes each year.

To accomplish their work, AWAKEN researchers have used scanning radars, lasers, and aircraft—each providing unique and complex measurements.  The DOE’s Wind Data Archive and Portal will host the data, allowing the AWAKEN research team and worldwide collaborators to decrease annual energy production losses, validate and improve wind farm models, and optimize wind farm design.

The project leverages the expertise and resources of DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and its partners, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories, as well as universities, research institutions, and industry.

Additional research on instrumentation originally used internally by teams on the Wind Energy Technologies Office’s Atmosphere to Electrons initiatives, such as AWAKEN, and Rotor Aerodynamics Aeroelastics and Wake, the recently released Wind Energy Instrumentation Development Roadmap assesses current state-of-the-art wind instrumentation, pinpoints unmet measurement needs, outlines development priorities for the next five years, and recommends a path forward to address gaps. 

To read more from NREL about AWAKEN, click HERE.

To navigate to the AWAKEN landing page, click HERE.

To read the AWAKEN fact sheet, click HERE.

 

Related Posts