Wind assessment for micro wind turbines in an urban environment

Abstract

Wind flow in urban environments could be seen as a potential source of energy. This form of energy could be exploited by means of micro wind turbines placed along the existing infrastructures. To test this, an outdoor campaign was organised, which recorded the wind characteristics at different locations around a highway noise barrier in Delft, the Netherlands. The real-time data set was validated with a two-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics study. Both the influence of the high turbulence and the inflow angle on the positioning of the micro wind turbines are assessed for the case of perpendicular flow towards the plane of the noise barrier. Results indicated that integrating micro wind turbines with the noise barriers proves advantageous due to the flow velocity increment downstream. Lastly, a noise assessment was conducted in order to determine the optimal spacing between micro wind turbines, which impacts its social acceptance.