PNNL

Abstract

The American Wake Experiment (AWAKEN) is a multi-institutional field campaign focused on gathering much needed observations of wind farm-atmosphere interactions. These interactions are responsible for a large portion of the uncertainty in wind plant modeling tools that are used to represent wind plant performance both prior to construction and during operation, and can negatively impact wind energy profitability. The AWAKEN field campaign will provide data for validation and, ultimately, improve modeling to lower these uncertainties. The location of the field campaign was chosen to leverage existing observational facilities operated by the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program in Northern Oklahoma that are in close vicinity to five operating wind plants. The field campaign is designed to address seven testable hypotheses through deployment of numerous instruments at twelve field locations and on four wind turbines. The vast majority of the observations from the experiment will be publicly available to researchers and industry members worldwide, which the authors hope will advance the state of the science for wind plants and lead to lower cost of wind energy.