Micro sitting of floating wind turbines in a wind farm using a multi-criteria framework

A novel procedure is introduced to optimise floating turbines' placement in a wind farm. In the approach, the 'Weighted Product Model (WPM)'is used, which is a Multi-Criteria Decision Method (MCDM). The turbine position is made by the mean of technical, economic, and environmental criteria. Moreover, experts' knowledge is introduced in the framework through the Ranking Method (RM). As test cases, two areas previously identified as potential locations for a floating wind farm are grid-characterised on square cells representing the turbine locations. As a result, the methodology proposed presents the optimal arrangement of the wind turbines in the wind farms based on the WPM-RM method. The results confirm the usefulness of the method for wind turbines micro-siting on floating wind farms.

Automated summary

A novel procedure is introduced to optimize the placement of floating turbines in a wind farm, using the Weighted Product Model (WPM) as a Multi-Criteria Decision Method (MCDM). The turbine position is determined based on technical, economic, and environmental criteria, incorporating expert knowledge through the Ranking Method (RM). The method is tested on two potential locations for a floating wind farm and successfully provides the optimal arrangement of wind turbines.