Design of wind farm layout for maximum wind energy capture

Wind is one of the most promising sources of alternative energy. The construction of wind farms is destined to grow in the U.S., possibly twenty-fold by the year 2030. To maximize the wind energy capture, this paper presents a model for wind turbine placement based on the wind distribution. The model considers wake loss, which can be calculated based on wind turbine locations, and wind direction. Since the turbine layout design is a constrained optimization problem, for ease of solving it, the constraints are transformed into a second objective function. Then a multi-objective evolutionary strategy algorithm is developed to solve the transformed bi-criteria optimization problem, which maximizes the expected energy output, as well as minimizes the constraint violations. The presented model is illustrated with examples as well as an industrial application. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.