Analytical Approach for Assessing the Layout of Wind Farms

This study presents a novel analytical approach for the layout and numerical optimization of a wind farm. The objective functions are to maximize the wind farm’s energy production and to minimize the cost of energy. To verify our analysis, a test case study of a 1.5 MW Nordex S77 wind turbine generator (WTG) was considered. The proposed framework consists of two main parts. First, we assessed a simulated wind farm’s layout from the technical and economic perspectives by simultaneously optimizing both the cost of energy and energy production. These parameters were estimated under the effects of two predominant wind directions. Among the proposed layout structures of the wind farm, the optimum values of cost and energy were found to be 5,657 MWh and 7.189 €cents/kWh respectively. Next, two scenarios specifying the decision parameters of the algorithm were considered. An optimization approach was proposed based on an efficient mathematical meta-heuristic methodology known as the firefly algorithm (FA). In this part of our study, a model was developed which evaluates the cost parameter as the main objective function and indicator of the investment cost using the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The optimized investment cost for an individual WTG in the wind farm was determined to be €11,388 during the operating period of the power plant using a discount rate of 12%.