Comparative study of the power production and noise emissions impact from two wind farms

This paper is founded on a statistical wind data analysis for two interconnected wind farms in Greece. Specifically, after the acquisition of a representative set of climatology data by two meteorological masts installed in two different mountainous regions, an annual power output prediction is carried out in order to estimate the performance and viability of the selected wind turbines in the parks. Two alternative power output simulation models are used; one empirical and one computational, the results of which are examined in a comparative manner. Furthermore, a wake losses' estimation is performed via the application of two different wake models, while a simple noise emission impact analysis is implemented. The study ends with a brief financial assessment of the two wind energy projects. The main outcome of the energy calculations is that the empirical numerical tool underestimates the total annual energy production of the two wind farms as well as their capacity factors. The wake models' comparative overview indicates a low percentage of wake losses for both the wind parks, which ensures the maximum power yield achievement. Finally, the results of the noise emission analysis prove that the turbines' predicted noise signals fall within the limits of recent regulation protocols. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.