Optimization of wind farm layout with complex land divisions

The study of wind farm layout optimization considering the decisions of land owners has rarely been reported in literature. In this paper, the common situation of complex land divisions (e.g. unequally spaced plots) is addressed for the first time. A new constraint handling and fitness evaluation technique is developed to address the more complex wind farm boundaries and integrated into two common wind farm optimization approaches: the grid based method and the unrestricted coordinate method. Enable by the new technique, a numerical optimization study is conducted with the goal of evaluating the impact of the participation of land owners on the economic performance of the wind farm. In particular, two scenarios are considered: 1) the varying land plot scenario, where the land plot availability is included in the decision variables of the optimization, and 2) the sequential land plot scenario, where the land plot availability is fixed prior to optimization. The study reveals that the unrestricted coordinate method under the sequential land plot scenario yields the best optimization results, with the smallest cost of energy and the largest wind farm efficiency. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.