Experimental Characterization of Wind Turbine Performance and Wind Farm Flow: Challenges and Opportunities

Wind energy plays a crucial role in the transition towards the carbon-free energy system that is urgently needed to curb climate change caused by the emission of greenhouse gasses associated with the utilization of fossil fuels. The levelized cost of wind energy has significantly decreased in the last two decades thanks to the introduction of highly efficient multi-MW wind turbines. These machines operate within the lower portion of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), converting the flux of wind kinetic energy into useful electrical power. Despite being a mature technology, the performance of wind turbines is intertwined with complex ABL turbulence dynamics, whose statistical properties are highly site-dependent and not fully understood. Moreover, the close arrangement of several turbines into wind farms gives rise to wake interactions that significantly affect power production.

This Research Topic aims to expand the knowledge of wind turbine performances and wind farm flow in general through the experimental analysis of power production, loads, wind and other meteorological data. The focus on experimental techniques is emphasized in order to create a comprehensive collection of studies investigating the challenges and opportunities associated with real-world wind energy applications.

This Research Topic will cover all aspects of wind farm analysis based on field, wind tunnel or virtual measurements, with a focus on aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, and turbine performance. These include, but are not limited to, the following aspects:
• Remote sensing detection of utility-scale wind turbine wakes;
• Wind tunnel studies of wind turbine wakes;
• Characterization of the turbulent atmospheric boundary layer applied to wind energy;
• Power and load analysis of utility- to laboratory-scale wind generators;
• Virtual instrumentation simulated through CFD techniques for wind resource and turbine wake measurements;
• Validation of numerical simulation results of atmospheric boundary layer for wind energy applications;
• Experimental wind resource and operational assessment;
• Quantification of the effects of blockage/speedups in wind farms through experiments.

Keywords: Wind energy, Turbine performance, Remote sensing, Atmospheric science, Wind farm simulations, Virtual lidar, Wind resource assessment, Blockage effect

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.