Optimization of wind turbine positioning in large windfarms by means of a genetic algorithm

In this paper a novel approach to the optimization of large windfarms is presented. The wind turbine distribution at a given site is optimized in order to extract the maximum energy for the minimum installation costs. The optimization is made by associating a windfarm simulation model based on wake superposition with a genetic search code. The purpose of the paper is to prove the feasibility of the method by analyzing the results obtained in some simple applications. As a test case, a square site subdivided into 100 square cells as possible turbine locations has been taken, and the optimization is applied to the number and position of the turbines for three wind cases: single direction, constant intensity with variable direction, and variable intensity with variable direction.