Wind of change

Wind power divides opinion perhaps more than any other renewable energy. Consequently, whenever possible, wind farm developers attempt to site turbines in uninhabited areas.

The problem with this is that uninhabited areas are frequently hilly, where wind conditions are difficult to predict. So a project run by Spain’s national renewable energy centre (CENER) recently looked into applying wind calculation software to assess the best location for wind farms in hilly areas.

While some proprietary software does exist within the wind industry it is generally not particularly well suited to hilly terrain.

The Spanish team turned to CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software which is more commonly associated with the aerodynamic design of car bodies or boat hulls.

Javier Villanueva, project manager of CENER’s wind turbine department explained that the team chose CFD because of its ability to simulate wind conditions for any type of terrain.

Historically, wind farm developers looking to evaluate the suitability of specific sites have turned to software developed specifically for the wind industry. However, these proprietary tools can be unreliable in hilly areas, claimed Villanueva.