#insights

Growing concerns about climate change have driven the development of cleaner, more sustainable energy sources around the world. In this context, offshore wind energy has proven to be a renewable source of great importance in the fight against global warming and the reduction of greenhouse gases.

However, the design and layout of wind turbines present technical and economic challenges that require more efficient solutions. Offshore wind farms are complex projects that must consider various factors of the environment in which they will be built: the direction of the wind, the seabed, exclusion zones, the costs of anchoring lines and cable laying, among others. Other factors play a crucial role in the optimal layout of wind turbines. However, the lack of systematic analysis of many of these parameters has led to costly and suboptimal solutions in the current design of these parks.

Because of this, digital analysis and simulation solutions are innovative tools that allow improving efficiency and optimizing the design of offshore wind farms with greater precision and feasibility.

Optimizing the design of offshore wind farms

These types of solutions address this problem by providing a wind farm simulation environment and advanced optimization algorithms. This is the case of FarmWise, developed by Sener. These algorithms allow efficient technical and economic decisions to be made for the layout of the generators. One of the fundamental aspects that must be analyzed, for example, is the dynamics of wakes, which can cause significant production losses. In addition, the technology already allows the optimization of the plant electrical system, cables and associated losses, position of the substations, among other factors, to achieve a joint optimization of aerodynamic losses and arrangement of the connecting wiring.

Furthermore, an advantage of this type of solutions is that they can analyze hundreds of factors to offer the best solution for each specific case, whether it is fixed or floating offshore wind farm projects, and in all phases of development, from permit and bidding processes until final implementation. This provides engineers and developers with a comprehensive tool to carry out an optimized and efficient design at all stages of the project.

Farmwise, for example, has already demonstrated its potential in the optimization of offshore wind farms located in Spain, Italy, and Portugal, with results of relevant production improvements, which allows establishing the reliability of the tool and determining the expansion of its capacities.

The combination of this innovative technology and the comprehensive approach paves the way towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly energy future, in addition to reducing costs by mitigating the risk of making errors in the layout of generators.