Investigation of tower shadow disturbance and wind shear variations effects on energy production wind speed and power characteristics

Recently, the importance of renewable energy sources and the amount of use has increased due to the reasons such as reduction of fossil-based energy sources, lack of clean and damage to nature and living beings when used. Wind energy is also one of the sources of renewable energy resources which is low-cost, useful, high-potential and clean sources. In order to make the right use of such an efficient source, it is necessary to correctly analyze for the region which the wind turbine will be installed and to correctly evaluate the parameters that effect the wind turbine power generation. Wind shear and tower shadow effects are the parameters that affect electrical energy production and the power obtained from the wind turbine. This study presents effects of tower shadow disturbance and wind shear variations on energy production. These are very important parameters to determine wind characteristics. The measurement station was established to obtain wind data in Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University Campus. Wind characteristics were determined for reference location in campus. Analysis were performed with created four different scenarios. Tower shadow, wind shear and disturbed wind speeds and energy loses were calculated. Also new two equation were created to determine the turbine power of AIR-X 400 W wind turbine that was selected as reference. Unlike previous literature studies, the effect of x distance of blade origin from the tower midline was investigated in tower shadow instead of the effect of wind shear coefficient. Analysis showed that x is the most effective parameter on tower shadow disturbance and tower shadow disturbance is more dominant than wind shear. More over, this study showed that considering the x distance in calculating the tower shadow disturbance had more successful results in determining the disturbed windspeeds and energy losses.