Wind energy resource assessment of Kutahya, Turkey using WAsP and layout optimization

Kutahya is considered as a candidate region for a wind farm investment due to Turkey's 2023 energy targets and its proximity to other wind farm investments. In this study, two years of wind data collected from a hill near the Evliya celebi Campus of Kutahya Dumlupinar University was used to evaluate the wind farm potential of Kutahya. First, the wind speed, wind direction, wind shear, turbulence intensity and wind speed ramp characteristics were determined. Second, the WAsP software was used to create a wind atlas for the region. Three sites with strong wind potential were evaluated. A techno-economic analysis was conducted using five types of wind turbines selected from the WAsP database. Third, optimization of a wind farm layout was conducted by considering different hub height options for 14 commercial wind turbines using MATLAB software. It was shown theoretically that a wind farm with a power capacity of 25 MW can operate with a capacity factor of 35%. However, due to the relatively high topographical ruggedness index on the wind farm site, the calculated value for the capacity factor could not be reached in a real-life application.