Simulation of Wind Farms

About this project

Most renewable energy sources (including wind energy), including fossil fuel energy, comes from the sun. Overall, hourly, the sun provides the earth with over 175 Trillion kilowatt hour of energy. Of this energy, about 1-2 percent of this is converted to wind energy. The places on the equator are more directly heated compared to the poles. This leads to significant global wind systems. in addition, the local environment like the presence of cities, water bodies, forests alter the local wind profiles in any area. In the last decade, an emphasis on renewable energy sources and rapid growth of wind farms has led to significant decrease in associated costs. The wind turbines developed in the 1980s became the breakthrough for the modern turbines. The wind rush that started in the 80s suddenly ended overnight when the California government stopped its support schemes. In the last decade starting 1998, the MegaWatt sized turbines and large wind farms have revolutionized the wind energy industry and making it a potent source of renewable energy. Spearheading this revolution has been Denmark and Germany, who are also the largest wind energy markets. This project explores ideas for usage of SimScale and exploitation of its features towards design, simulation and optimization of the power output of wind farms.