Development of a 3D Wind Flow Model for Real-Time Wind Farm Simulation

Wind energy is one of the most significant contributors in distributed renewable energy resources and is expected to further grow in the next years, imposing new challenges especially regarding large future wind turbines with 10MW and more in terms of applied materials, structural loads as well as simulation and forecasting of wind conditions at specific sites. To overcome these challenges, precise wind farm models are required to ensure optimal power generation and fatigue load estimation. This paper deals with requirements for a real-time three-dimensional wind flow model which covers important aspects of wind flow in wind farms, on-site conditions and aerodynamic interactions of wind turbines. A simulation framework is proposed and described in detail. Simulation results are presented and show the prospect of future investigation opportunities.