IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v401y2025ipcs030626192501517x.html

Impact of hub height for enhanced performance of wind turbines under varying atmospheric stability

Author

Listed:
  • Cao, Jiufa
  • Gao, Xiang
  • Shen, Xiang
  • Zhong, Wei
  • Ren, Hehe
  • Ke, Shitang

Abstract

While atmospheric stability significantly impacts wind farm performance, the relationship between stability conditions, the influence of hub height, and wake behaviour remains poorly understood, creating a critical barrier to maximizing wind energy efficiency. This study presents the first comprehensive investigation of these coupled effects using Large Eddy Simulation with actuator line modelling, enabling detailed analysis of stability-dependent wake dynamics. Precursor simulations generate realistic unstable, neutral and stable atmospheric inflows, with model validation against Nibe turbine data. Results reveal previously unquantified relationships between stability and wake recovery, with rates varying by up to 37 % between unstable and stable conditions. The investigation of different hub heights shows unexpectedly large stability-dependent benefits, achieving power increases of 10.49 % for single turbines and 10.92 %/8.31 % for upstream/downstream turbines in stable conditions - precisely when wake effects are most problematic. Analysis demonstrates that while increased hub height primarily affects vertical velocity profiles, strategic height adjustment can effectively mitigate wake losses under varying atmospheric conditions. These findings establish new principles for stability-aware wind farm design enhancement, with significant implications for renewable energy deployment efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Cao, Jiufa & Gao, Xiang & Shen, Xiang & Zhong, Wei & Ren, Hehe & Ke, Shitang, 2025. "Impact of hub height for enhanced performance of wind turbines under varying atmospheric stability," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 401(PC).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:401:y:2025:i:pc:s030626192501517x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126787
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626192501517X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126787?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sun, Haiying & Yang, Hongxing, 2023. "Wind farm layout and hub height optimization with a novel wake model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).
    2. Tian, Linlin & Song, Yilei & Zhao, Ning & Shen, Wenzhong & Wang, Tongguang & Zhu, Chunling, 2020. "Numerical investigations into the idealized diurnal cycle of atmospheric boundary layer and its impact on wind turbine's power performance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 419-427.
    3. Han, Xingxing & Liu, Deyou & Xu, Chang & Shen, Wen Zhong, 2018. "Atmospheric stability and topography effects on wind turbine performance and wake properties in complex terrain," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 640-651.
    4. Radünz, William Corrêa & Sakagami, Yoshiaki & Haas, Reinaldo & Petry, Adriane Prisco & Passos, Júlio César & Miqueletti, Mayara & Dias, Eduardo, 2021. "Influence of atmospheric stability on wind farm performance in complex terrain," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(PA).
    5. Lubitz, William David, 2014. "Impact of ambient turbulence on performance of a small wind turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 69-73.
    6. Chen, K. & Song, M.X. & Zhang, X. & Wang, S.F., 2016. "Wind turbine layout optimization with multiple hub height wind turbines using greedy algorithm," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA), pages 676-686.
    7. Syed, Abdul Haseeb & Javed, Adeel & Asim Feroz, Raja M. & Calhoun, Ronald, 2020. "Partial repowering analysis of a wind farm by turbine hub height variation to mitigate neighboring wind farm wake interference using mesoscale simulations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    8. Alam, Md. Mahbub & Rehman, Shafiqur & Meyer, Josua P. & Al-Hadhrami, Luai M., 2011. "Review of 600–2500kW sized wind turbines and optimization of hub height for maximum wind energy yield realization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 3839-3849.
    9. Göçmen, Tuhfe & Laan, Paul van der & Réthoré, Pierre-Elouan & Diaz, Alfredo Peña & Larsen, Gunner Chr. & Ott, Søren, 2016. "Wind turbine wake models developed at the technical university of Denmark: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 752-769.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pérez Albornoz, C. & Escalante Soberanis, M.A. & Ramírez Rivera, V. & Rivero, M., 2022. "Review of atmospheric stability estimations for wind power applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Lu, Hongkun & Gao, Xiaoxia & Yu, Jinxiao & Zhao, Qiansheng & Zhu, Xiaoxun & Ma, Wanli & Cao, Jingyuan & Wang, Yu, 2025. "Analysis and prediction of incoming wind speed for turbines in complex wind farm: Accounting for meteorological factors and spatiotemporal characteristics of wind farm," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 381(C).
    3. Gao, Xiaoxia & Chen, Yao & Xu, Shinai & Gao, Wei & Zhu, Xiaoxun & Sun, Haiying & Yang, Hongxing & Han, Zhonghe & Wang, Yu & Lu, Hao, 2022. "Comparative experimental investigation into wake characteristics of turbines in three wind farms areas with varying terrain complexity from LiDAR measurements," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    4. Jin, Jingxin & Li, Yilin & Ye, Lin & Xu, Xunjian & Lu, Jiazheng, 2023. "Integration of atmospheric stability in wind resource assessment through multi-scale coupling method," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).
    5. Huanqiang, Zhang & Xiaoxia, Gao & Hongkun, Lu & Qiansheng, Zhao & Xiaoxun, Zhu & Yu, Wang & Fei, Zhao, 2024. "Investigation of a new 3D wake model of offshore floating wind turbines subjected to the coupling effects of wind and wave," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).
    6. Feng, Dachuan & Li, Larry K.B. & Gupta, Vikrant & Wan, Minping, 2022. "Componentwise influence of upstream turbulence on the far-wake dynamics of wind turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 1081-1091.
    7. Thé, Jesse & Yu, Hesheng, 2017. "A critical review on the simulations of wind turbine aerodynamics focusing on hybrid RANS-LES methods," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 257-289.
    8. Muhammad Bin Ali & Zeshan Ahmad & Saad Alshahrani & Muhammad Rizwan Younis & Irsa Talib & Muhammad Imran, 2022. "A Case Study: Layout Optimization of Three Gorges Wind Farm Pakistan, Using Genetic Algorithm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-18, December.
    9. Khan, Mehtab Ahmad & Javed, Adeel & Shakir, Sehar & Syed, Abdul Haseeb, 2021. "Optimization of a wind farm by coupled actuator disk and mesoscale models to mitigate neighboring wind farm wake interference from repowering perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    10. Christy Pérez & Michel Rivero & Mauricio Escalante & Victor Ramirez & Damien Guilbert, 2023. "Influence of Atmospheric Stability on Wind Turbine Energy Production: A Case Study of the Coastal Region of Yucatan," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-20, May.
    11. Sun, Haiying & Yang, Hongxing, 2023. "Wind farm layout and hub height optimization with a novel wake model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).
    12. Pacheco de Sá Sarmiento, Franciene Izis & Goes Oliveira, Jorge Luiz & Passos, Júlio César, 2022. "Impact of atmospheric stability, wake effect and topography on power production at complex-terrain wind farm," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PC).
    13. Lu, Pan & Wang, Yan & Zhou, Yongze & Ge, Mingwei & Li, Rennian, 2025. "Large-eddy simulation of wind farm wake behavior and power efficiency: Effects of atmospheric stratification and staggered configurations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    14. Yutaka Hara & Md. Shameem Moral & Aoi Ide & Yoshifumi Jodai, 2025. "Fast Simulation of the Flow Field in a VAWT Wind Farm Using the Numerical Data Obtained by CFD Analysis for a Single Rotor," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-32, January.
    15. Ulku, I. & Alabas-Uslu, C., 2019. "A new mathematical programming approach to wind farm layout problem under multiple wake effects," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1190-1201.
    16. Ziyu Zhang & Peng Huang & Haocheng Sun, 2020. "A Novel Analytical Wake Model with a Cosine-Shaped Velocity Deficit," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-20, June.
    17. Akintayo T. Abolude & Wen Zhou, 2018. "A Comparative Computational Fluid Dynamic Study on the Effects of Terrain Type on Hub-Height Wind Aerodynamic Properties," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Arkaitz Rabanal & Alain Ulazia & Gabriel Ibarra-Berastegi & Jon Sáenz & Unai Elosegui, 2018. "MIDAS: A Benchmarking Multi-Criteria Method for the Identification of Defective Anemometers in Wind Farms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.
    19. Pollini, Nicolò, 2022. "Topology optimization of wind farm layouts," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 1015-1027.
    20. Fei Zhao & Yihan Gao & Tengyuan Wang & Jinsha Yuan & Xiaoxia Gao, 2020. "Experimental Study on Wake Evolution of a 1.5 MW Wind Turbine in a Complex Terrain Wind Farm Based on LiDAR Measurements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-14, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:401:y:2025:i:pc:s030626192501517x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.