By using the rated power of wind turbines, Capacity Factors are calculated for turbine sites, site groups, wind farms and resource grids.
We have decided to add this new feature because Capacity Factors are becoming more relevant as shares of wind energy increase in the global energy systems. The new addition also aligns WAsP and the Global Wind Atlas, which already includes three global map layers with gross Capacity Factor (see under “Wind Energy Layers”).
Included in this release is also a new “WAsP CFD result viewer”, which is available from the “Tools” menu of WAsP 12.5. This tool enables the WAsP user to open, view and explore WAsP CFD result files (cfdres files), independently of the WAsP workspace.
The WAsP CFD result viewer is quite powerful, and it will significantly increase the value of WAsP CFD; WAsP can already display spatial views of some WAsP CFD results, e.g. turbulence intensity and flow inclination. As such, WAsP can already be used for identifying areas in complex terrain, where one should not install wind turbines (because of flow separation and highly turbulent/inclined wind flow). However, using the new WAsP CFD result viewer, it is possible to study the WAsP CFD results much closer e.g. by displaying various flow fields and transects through selected reference points. It is also possible to copy graphics and tables to clipboard and paste to reports. The shown information includes:
- Turbulence intensity
- Wind speed
- Wind shear exponent
- Flow inclination angle
- Wind speed standard deviation
- Wind speedup factors
- Deflection of wind direction
- Along-wind velocity component
- Cross-wind velocity component
- Terrain elevation
The WAsP CFD result viewer includes a help file. It is also possible to watch a demo video here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrqli3B3J9m5I9gfw7I7thjiibKTJy9Em
You can download the WAsP suite installer and get the release notes here: https://www.wasp.dk/Download/WAsP12-Suite-Installer