Wind farm design, micro-siting and optimisation

The use of large areas of land for harvesting wind energy requires careful design of the location of turbines, roads and electrical cables. Our experience of operational and under-construction wind farms underpins our knowledge of how to design wind farms properly.

 Wind Farm micro-siting exercises balance many constraints

Key design criteria include optimising energy yield which means placing turbines at the windiest locations yet far enough apart to reduce ‘wake losses’ between turbines.  The wake of a wind turbine takes many times the rotor diameter to fully recover, however a compromise is required to utilise the available land area; this means placing the turbines somewhere within each others wakes. The minimum separation between wind turbines is ultimately dictated by turbine manufacturer specifications on turbulence intensity, a factor affecting structural fatigue.

An automatic process of ‘optimisation’ can be conducted using specialist software. However, the final layout will always differ from the ‘optimum’ due to the many  site -pecific environmental factors at play.

Our preferred approach is to undertake some desk based design work, then to visit the site including all potential turbine locations, and to survey it using a Global Positioning System (GPS).  Once back in the office, we refine our design based on the GPS co-ordinates and calculate the energy output implications as well as noise impacts on nearby houses, to ensure our assumptions are correct.

The design process is an iterative one, as we proceed with it we are able to assess the impact of every design change on energy yield, constructability, ecological impact, noise levels and visual impact.  This provides assurance that our design is a truly balanced outcome for the developer. For the satisfaction of everyone else affected by the project, we can supply detailed ‘Design Statements’ to justify the final positions of your turbines, roads and electrical infrastructure to stakeholders and planning authorities.

When designing a wind farm site, we provide appropriate levels of detail depending on what stage you are at; whether you are in early scoping, entering landowner negotiation, building a financial case, seeking planning approval, or even deciding how best to re-power or modifying an existing wind farm site.

To find out how we can deliver to you an optimised and balanced design for your wind farm proposal, please contact us.