CFD Applications for Wind Energy Exploitation

Dear Colleagues,

There is an exponential growth of wind energy in the world. Wind power capacity has been steadily increasing worldwide for the last 10 years, with a 19% increase in the year 2019 alone [1], reaching around 650 GW of total installed capacity in 2020. Wind energy converters are a valuable source of energy generation, not only on their own but also as part of distributed energy generation systems, offering significant benefits in terms of high energy efficiency, lower emission of pollutants, and reduced energy dependence on fossil fuels.

The estimation of the wind energy potential in the presence of large obstacles (urban, complex terrain, etc) can be challenging, requiring detailed numerical or experimental studies. For example, small wind generators can be used as standalone devices in remote locations or in densely populated areas. Onshore wind farms are sometimes positioned in or near complex topographic features (natural or artificial), and this increases the uncertainty in the calculation of the available wind resource and annual energy production of the site. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods are used now on a daily basis in wind energy to account for such uncertainties, since they provide a more detailed picture of the flow field in complex situations.

This Special Issue of Energies will be of interest to academics, scientists, and industry experts interested in the applications of CFD to wind energy, with a special focus on methods to study the interaction of:

• resource assessment of small wind energy generators
• wind rotors and blades—aerodynamics
• wakes
• control and diagnostics of wind energy converters

References

[1] https://www.evwind.es/2020/07/05/wind-energy-expanded-19-in-2019-with-around-60-gw-of-new-capacity/75563

Dr. Carlos Peralta
Guest Editor

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• resource assessment of small wind energy generators
• wind rotors and blades—aerodynamics
• wakes
• control and diagnostics of wind energy converters