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Tiny Tweak Can Boost Wind Power Even When the Breeze Is Calm

“The potential gains are so significant that this should be rapidly deployed,” the professor of the study said.

Tiny Tweak Can Boost Wind Power Even When the Breeze Is Calm
A wind turbine stands at an offshore wind farm in the U.K. (Photographer: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Turning a turbine just slightly away from the prevailing wind can boost output from a farm by as much as 47% when breezes are minimal.

The adjustment steers how the wind comes off one blade and into the next, according to the results of a 10-day test conducted at a TransAlta Corp. wind farm in Alberta by a Stanford University research team. In normal wind conditions, pushing the wind wake in slightly different directions boosted production by as much as 13%.

Turbulence from these wind-wakes can place extra strain on the blades and increase maintenance costs. Managing the air flow of upwind turbines can reduce stress as well as provide more power, John Dabiri, a professor and lead author of the study, said in an interview. The software his group developed to improve wind farm performance can be run on a laptop, he said.

“The potential gains are so significant that this should be rapidly deployed,” Dabiri said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Reg Gale, Joe Ryan

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