Study on three wake models’ effect on wind energy estimation in Hong Kong

Wake effect is one of the most vital factors in wind farm layout design and energy output estimation. Some wake models have been used to improve the power generation estimation precision. In this study, three typical wake models (Jensen wake model, two-dimensional (2D) Jensen wake model and Jensen-Gaussian wake model) are compared and adopted to estimate the offshore wind energy output in Hong Kong. Both the total electricity generation and power output from each wind turbine are compared when different wake models are used. The results show that the three different wake models have not produced significant different results on their total energy output estimations. The estimation error from the 2D Jensen wake model and Jensen-Gaussian wake model compared with the Jensen wake model are 1.55% and 0.38%, respectively. However, the wake’s effect on each wind turbine’s power estimation cannot be ignored, which is important to wind turbine’s structural study. Based on the 2D Jensen wake model, an assumption of 3D Jensen-Gaussian wake model is discussed at the end of this paper, which is supposed to be studied in the near future. In conclusion, this study contributes to wake model selection, wind farm layout design and wake model’s further development.