Industry-first achieved by TUM Wind Energy Institute in pioneering study with DTU Wind Energy and ZephIR Lidar.
A ground-breaking study by the Wind Energy Institute at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has used wind lidars originating from ZephIR Lidar to demonstrate the possibilities that total wind farm control offers the industry. Wakes were deflected along a line of wind turbines resulting in an increase of 15% actual power output from the combined wind farm production.
According to TUM, this was the first ever closed-loop demonstration of wake deflection control, developed within a collaborative project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). The demonstration consisted of 3 turbines and, by yawing two of the upwind turbines to laterally deflect their wakes, the rearmost turbine was able to increase production leading to a net 15% gain in power across the ‘wind farm’. The lidars, provided by Danish Technical University (DTU) Wind Energy, measured the wind speed across the full flow field of the experiment, providing a clear visualisation of the deflected wakes and reduced interferences among the wind turbines.

Wakes are visualised by ZephIR Lidar systems provided by DTU Wind Energy
Total wind farm control looks at the most effective method of turbine operation to benefit the overall production output from the site, rather than on an individual turbine-by-turbine basis. One key cause of overall site underproduction can be the wakes affecting all turbines downwind of the leading edge of the wind farm. The wake effects build and propagate through the wind farm with the potential for those turbines sited at the very back of the wind farm to be heavily limited in output.
ZephIR Lidars remotely measure wind speed from the ground or installed on turbines out to ranges of 300 metres in order to inform wind studies or to characterise a wind turbine’s true potential by reducing yaw misalignment and accurately measuring power curves in free wind flow. Measurements are taken across the full rotor swept diameter, rather than just at or up to hub height as typical met masts and more basic turbine mounted remote sensors provide.
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About the TUM Wind Energy Institute The mission of the Wind Energy Institute is to educate students and contribute to the development of wind energy technology. These goals are pursued by advancing the understanding of the physics that underlie the energy conversion process from wind, and by developing engineering solutions that exploit this knowledge. The Wind Energy Institute works both on basic scientific and application-oriented problems, with a focus on four main thrust areas: simulation, testing, control and design. Find out more information here: www.mw.tum.de/wind/
About ZephIR Lidar ZephIR Lidar provides hub height and turbine mounted accurate wind measurement, for wind energy and meteorological applications. These industry leading wind lidar products, ZephIR 300 and ZephIR DM, provide accurate wind measurements, in both onshore and offshore applications. With more than 10 million hours of operation in the field and over 1000 deployments (and counting) ZephIR Lidar has pioneered the use of lidar in the wind industry. The company is proud of the many world firsts it has achieved with customers including upwind measurements from a turbine nacelle, turbine wake studies, offshore deployments both fixed and floating wind lidar, an industry-accepted validation process, re-financing and re-powering a wind farm, successfully technology accuracy demonstration in a wind tunnel and total wind project financing from a lidar without need for a met mast. Find out more information here: https://www.zxlidars.com
For more information, please contact:
+44 (0) 7825 159 082
Or
Prof. Dr. Carlo L. Bottasso, Chair of Wind Energy
Wind Energy Institute, Technical University of Munich
+49 (0)89 289 16680