InternationalJournalofEnergyScience(IJES)Volume3Issue3,June2013 www.ijesci.

org

StudyontheEffectsofWindFarmon
NearsurfaceWindSpeedofWinterspring
Season
RonghuiXu*1,XuSun1,JimeiGao2,JingLiu1,XuemingCui1,XuehuiCheng2,HongweiLi2
CollegeofEcologyandEnvironmentalScience,InnerMongoliaAgriculturalUniversity,Huhhot,010019,Inner
MongoliaAutonomousRegion,China
1

InnerMongoliaautonomousregionenvironmentmonitoringcenter,Huhhot,010019,InnerMongolia
AutonomousRegion,China
2

*1

xronghui0107@126.com;sunxu507@126.com;1ljing58@126.com

Abstract
We chose Zhurihe wind farm, which is located on Sonid
YouqiofInnerMongolia,asourstudyarea.Theobservation
points are setted on upwind area, inner wind farm and
downwind area, in order to parallelly observe nearsurface
windspeedwithin3mrangeofwindfarmareaanddiscuss
the effect of wind farm on nearsurface wind speed. The
resultsshowthatthewindfarmconsumeswindenergyand
reduceswindspeedofinnerwindfarmanddownwindarea.
Under the wind speed condition of 1.52.5m/s and 812m/s,
thehighestdecreasingamplitudeofthewindspeedat3.0m
height in the wind farm is 22% and 7%, respectively. The
wind speed of downwind area are both decrease 5%.The
existenceofthewindfarmhasnoeffectontheformofwind
velocity profile, they are all the standard logarithmic curve.
Under the two kinds of wind speed conditions, theslopeof
wind velocity profile inner wind farm decreases 0.3073 and
0.2183.Downwind area decreases 0.0632 and 0.1560. That is
tosaythefluctuationtrendofwindspeedincreaseswiththe
increaseofheightisnotsignificant.
Keywords
WindFarm;WindSpeed;WindVelocityProfile

Introduction
Wind power, as a clean renewable energy, is taken
more and more attention of the countries all over the
world. However, largescale construction of wind
farmsgenerateseconomicbenefits,atthesametime,it
alsohasacertaininfluenceonthelocalecologicaland
meteorological environment. Abroad researches on
climateimpactofwindfarmbegininthepasttenyears,
they use model simulation to mainly discuss the
changes of meteorological factors at 80300m height
from the surface. D.B.Barrie and D.B.KirkDavidoff
(2010), Marc Calaf (2011) used the regional climate
model to simulate the climatic effect of wind farm,

respectively. Results showed that, atmospheric

boundary layer was disturbed by the wind farm, and
then surface turbulence and atmospheric water heat
flux was increased. As a result, there would be an
impact on local climate. Model simulations of SW,
WalkoRL(2004)DANIELB.KIRKDAVIDOFF(2008),
X.Li, S.Zhong and W.E. Heilman (2010), Keith (2004)
alsoobtainedtheconsistentconclusion,windfarmcan
reduce daily average wind speed at 80m height with
seasonal variation. Sten T. Frandsens (2009) research
showedthatthedifferenceofthehubbeforeandafter
the wind farm was gradually significant. When free
stream wind speed between 8 and 9m/s, the ratio can
be taken as 0.86,0.88 and 0.93 at about 6000, 8000 and
11,000m behind the leading edge of the farm,and the
impact of the wind farm on hub height wind speed
was estimated to be noticeable at least 10km
downwind. Merete Bruun Christiansen (2005)
researched climate change of the largescale offshore
windfarmarea.Theresultwasthattheaveragewind
speed decreased 89% when the wind through the
windfarm.
However, weather changes in the highaltitude
environment cannot reflect the status of near surface
meteorological factors. Near surface meteorological
environment changes on arid and semiarid areas,
whose ecological environment is relatively fragile, are
closely related to grass growth and vegetation
construction.Windfarmconstructionontheecological
impact of these areas is of vital importance, but there
arefewsystemresearchesonimpactofwindfarmsof
near surface meteorological factor which are related
withwatercyclebothathomeandabroad.Thisstudy
makes observations within 3m nearsurface of wind
farm area, and discusses the influence of wind speed

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www.ijesci.org InternationalJournalofEnergyScience(IJES)Volume3Issue3,June2013

The instrument for wind speed observation is HOBO

automaticweatherstations.Windspeedmeasurement
range and accuracy is 045 m/s and 1.1 m/s. Start
windspeedis0.5m/s.Dataofthesamplingintervalis
5min and we take continuous observation from
10:0016:00 every day. Observing time is from March
24,2013toMarch28,2013.

insideandoutsideofwindfarmareas.
Observation Area and Observation Method
TheSelectionofObservatonAreaObservationSites
In order to reduce the influence of terrain factors on
wind speed observation, this study chooses ZhuRihe
wind farm which is located on Inner Mongolia
grassland and has a relatively flat terrain. The study
areageographicalcoordinatesforthecenterpositionis
E 11247 N 4231 .The region belongs to arid
continental climate, the average temperature is 4.3 ,
the highest and minimum temperature is 38.7 and
38.8 , respectively. Average annual precipitation
andevaporationis17019mmand2384mm.Thestudy
areaprevailsnorthwestwindthroughouttheyear,the
averagewindspeedis5.5m/sandmaximumlevelcan
reach 910.Our study wind farm covers an area of 20
squarekilometerswith6kmnorthsouthdirectionand
eastwest 4 kilometers. The wind farm consists of 33
turbines and each turbine is 65mtall with 50mlong
rotorblades.

Results and Analysis

TheEffectsofWindFarmonWindSpeed
1) The Differences of Wind Speed Inside and
OutsideofWindFarmatLowWindSpeedConditions
(1.52.5m/S)
Table 1 table 3 is statistics for wind speed at the
sameheightbothinsideandoutsideofwindfarm.
There are 148 groups effective observed data from
March24,2013toMarch25,2013.
TABLE1WINDSPEEDSTATISTICSFOR3.0MOFLOWWINDSPEED
CONDITION

observation
height

Instudyarea,wesetfourobservationsitesparalleling
to the wind direction. Upwind area and downwind
areaaresettedoneobservationpointrespectively,and
therearetwopointsinwindfarmarea.Thenatureof
the underlying surface of each observation point is
similar. Main soil type is Sandy soil and the main
vegetationtypeisStipabrevifloraGriseb.Specificlayout
ofobservationpointsisshowninfigure1.

3.0m

upwindarea
innerwindfarm
1
innerwindfarm
2
downwindarea

02

24

46

68

69

46

27

95

26

24

81

46

21

87

51

20

TABLE2WINDSPEEDSTATISTICSFOR1.5MOFLOWWINDSPEED
CONDITION

observation

height

1.5m

0.5m

1.5m
Inner wind farm
1
H 1154m Inner wind farm

upwindarea
innerwindfarm
1
innerwindfarm
2
downwindarea

2
H 1155m

windspeed(m/s)

position

3.0m

Upwind area
H 1147m

windspeed(m/s)

position

02

24

46

68

81

38

23

95

41

10

95

43

10

99

40

TABLE3WINDSPEEDSTATISTICSFOR0.5MOFLOWWINDSPEED
CONDITION

2600m

1400m

1800m

1200
m

1600m Downwind
area
H 1157m

FIG.1OBSERVATONPOINTS

ObservationMethod
We observe the windspeed of each observation point
synchronously.Windspeedvalueoftheheightof0.5m,
1.5mand3.0misobservedateachpoint.

212

observation

height

0.5m

windspeed(m/s)

position
upwindarea
innerwindfarm
1
innerwindfarm
2
downwindarea

02

24

46

68

103

41

101

42

103

42

101

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InternationalJournalofEnergyScience(IJES)Volume3Issue3,June2013 www.ijesci.org

2) The Differences of Wind Speed Inside and

OutsideofWindFarmatHighWindSpeedConditions
(812m/S)
It was windy weather with the gust wind of 67
magnitude on March 26, 2013. Minimum wind
speed was more than 5.5m/s and maximum wind
speedreached15m/s.Underthisweathercondition,
inside the wind farm, only position 1 observed
effectivewindspeeddata.
Figure 2 figure 4 reflect wind speed variation of
high wind speed condition of each measuring
points located of different heights. It can be seen
from figure 2 and figure 3,the regularities of wind
speed at the height of 3.0m and 1.5m are upwind
area>downwind area>inner wind farm .The
regularity of wind speed at 3.0m height is more
obvious, wind speed inner wind farm is much

smaller than the upwind area. Compared with the

upwind control, the reduction amplitude of wind
speedinwindfarmis3%27%,andthereduction
amplitudeofwindspeedindownwindareais3%
20%.At the height of 1.5m,wind speed of inner
windfarmand downwindarea can reduce by3%
24% and 2.5% 19% respectively, comparing with
upwind area. In windy weather with high wind
speedcondition,thewindspeedofinnerwindfarm
at0.5mheightissignificantlylessthanupwindarea,
themaximumreductionis25%.Thewindspeedof
downwind area shows a strong instantaneous
changes compared with upwind area, there is no
obviousregularity,asshowninfigure4.

wind speedm/s

16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
1

7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58
upwind area

inside wind farm

downwind area

FIG.2WINDSPEEDOF3.0MHEIGHTOFHIGHWINDSPEEDCONDITION

wind speedm/s

13
12
11
10
9
8
7
1

7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58
upwind area

inside wind farm

downwind area

FIG.3WINDSPEEDOF1.5MHEIGHTOFHIGHWINDSPEEDCONDITION

11
wind speedm/s

As we can see from table 1 and table 2, in 1.52.5

m/swindspeedcondition,distributionregularities
of wind speed at the height of 3.0m and 1.5m are
thesamebothinsideandoutsideofthewindfarm
area. At the height of 3.0m, the number of wind
speed data, which distributes within the scope of
02m/s, of the two positions in wind farm and
downwindareaismuchgreaterthanthenumberof
upwind area. Wind speed data in the range of
02m/s at upwind area, inner wind farm 1, inner
wind farm 2 and downwind area accounts for
46.62%, 64.19%, 54.73% and 58.78% of effective
observationdata,respectively.Thewindspeeddata
inthedistributionwithin46m/sofinnerwindfarm
and downwind area is lower than that of upwind
area. The wind speed of 1.5m height has similar
regularities.Windspeeddataintherangeof02m/s
at four positions accounts for 54.73%, 64.19%,
64.19% and 66.89% of effective observation data.
InnerWindfarmanddownwindareahavenowind
speed data within 68m/s.Thus, wind farm has an
effectonwindspeedattheheightof1.5mand3.0m
bothinitsinternalanddownwindarea.Theratioof
wind speed more than 6m/s is dropped, and the
occurrences oflow wind speed of02m/s increases
significantly.Inotherword,becauseofwindfarm,
the wind speed at the height of 3.0m and 1.5m of
inner and downwind area decreases. Seen from
table 3, in 1.52.5m/s wind speed condition, wind
speed data at 0.5m height that distributes in the
four observation points is balanced. It reflects that
wind farm has little influence on wind speed of
0.5mheightofitsinternalanddownwindarea.

10
9
8
7
6
5
1

7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58
upwind area

inside wind farm

downwind area

FIG.4WINDSPEEDOF0.5MHEIGHTOFHIGHWINDSPEEDCONDITION

3)ComparationofAverageWindSpeedfrom10:00
to16:00.
Because of the randomness of the instantaneous

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www.ijesci.org InternationalJournalofEnergyScience(IJES)Volume3Issue3,June2013

wind speed is very strong, it is difficult to

intuitively reflect the overall variation of wind
speed. Average wind speed can reflect overall
regularityofwindspeedinthearea.Asaresult,the
average wind speed during observation period is
alsoanalyzedinthispaper.

area. The average wind speed of upwind position

at3.0mand1.5mheightisgreaterthaninnerwind
farm and downwind area. It suggests that wind
farm consume wind power and make wind speed
loss. Average wind speed decreases obviously.
However, the difference of average wind speed at
0.5m height in four observation points is not
significant.
Figure 5b shows the average wind speed of each
observationpointin812m/swindspeedcondition.
The changes of average wind speed at 3.0m and
1.5m height is similar with the 1.52.5 m/s wind
speed condition. Wind speed in wind farm
decreasesobviously,thebiggestreducedamplitude
is 0.86 m/s, the wind speed decreases 7.3%
comparedwithupwindarea.Downwindareawind
speed decreases by 3%. Under the condition of
812m/swindspeed,themeanwindspeedat0.5m
height is no significant difference compared with
upwindarea.

3
2.5
2
1.5
1

TheEffectofWindFarmonNearSurfaceWind
VelocityProfile

0.5
0
1.5m
upwind area
inner wind farm 2

0.5m
inner wind farm1
downwind area

average wind speedm/s

a
12
11

2.6
2.4
2.2
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0

10

0.5

1.5
2
heightm

upwind area
inner wind farm2

2.5

3.5

inner wind farm1

downwind area

6
5
3m
upwind area

1.5m
inner wind farm

13

0.5m
downwind aea

b
FIG.5AVERAGEWINDSPEEDCOMPARISON(A1.52.5M/SWINDSPEED
CONDITION B812M/SWINDSPEEDCONDITION)

Seen from figure 5a, under 1.52.5m/s wind speed

conditionthemeanwindspeedat3.0mheightof
two positions in wind farm are 78% and 89% of
upwind area, respectively. Wind speed of two
points within wind farm decreases obviously, the
biggest reduce rate reached 22%.Compared with
upwindarea,theaveragewindspeedofdownwind
areareduces5%.Averagewindspeedregularityof
1.5mheightissimilarto3.0mheight.Speedofinner
windfarm1,innerwindfarm2anddownwindarea
is87%,92%and95%ofthewindspeedofupwind

214

wind speed m/s

3m

wind speed m/s

average wind speedm/s

Figure 5 reflects the average wind speed of

measuring points of three observation height in
different wind conditions. In 1.52.5m/s and
812m/s two kinds of wind speed levels, the
regularityofwindspeedofeachmeasuringpointat
the height at 3.0m and 1.5m is accordant, that is
upwind area>downwind area>inner wind farm.
Andat0.5mheight,undertwokindsofwindscale,
the average wind speed in wind farm is slightly
different.

12
11
10
9
8
7
0

0.5

upwind area

1.5
2
heightm
inner windfarm

2.5

3.5

downwindarea

b
FIG.6THEWINDVELOCITYPROFILEOFEACHMEASURINGPOINTIN
DIFFERENTWINDSPEEDCONDITION(A1.52.5M/SWINDSPEED
CONDITION B812M/SWINDSPEEDCONDITION)

Wind velocity profile refers to a curve which shows

changesinwindspeedwithheightdistribution.Under
normalcircumstances,thewindspeedofsurfacelayer

InternationalJournalofEnergyScience(IJES)Volume3Issue3,June2013 www.ijesci.org

increases with height. Figure 6 shows wind speed

profile under two kinds of wind speed condition of
eachmeasuringpoint.Wecanseefromfigure6,under
twokindsofwindlevel,windspeedisincreasedwith
the increase of height at the position of upwind area
control, inner wind farm and downwind area. The
wind speed profile of each measuring point is
standard logarithmic curve. The multiple correlation
coefficients are greater than 0.95, it shows that the
existence of the wind farm does not affect the
nearsurfacewindspeedprofileform.
TABLE4THEREGRESSIONMODELOFWINDVELOCITYPROFILEOFEACH
MEASURINGPOINTINDIFFERENTWINDSPEEDCONDITION

windscale

measuring

regressionmodel

points
upwindarea

coefficient
y=0.4726Ln(x)
+1.9222

innerwind
1.52.5m/s

farm1
innerwind
farm2
downwind
area
upwindarea

y=0.1653Ln(x)
+1.7353
y=0.3385Ln(x)
+1.8085
y=0.4094Ln(x)
+1.8627
y=1.9617Ln(x)
+9.5597

812m/s

innerwind
farm1
downwind
area

correlation

y=1.7434Ln(x)
+9.0721
y=1.8057Ln(x)
+9.3952

R2=0.9992
R2=0.9745
R2=0.998
R2=0.9954
R2=0.9942
R2=0.9989
R2=0.989

Buttable4reflectsthattheslopeofwindspeedprofile
inwindfarmisminimal,comparedwithupwindarea.
The slope is 0.1653 and 1.7434 under 1.52.5m/s and
812m/s wind speed conditions, and it reduces 0.3073
and0.2183, respectively. The decrease of amplitudeof
downwind area slope of is smaller, compared with
upwind area control, it reduces 0.0632 and 0.1560,
respectively. It can be seen that, compared with wind
speedchangesofupwindarea,theverticaldistribution
ofwindspeedattheheightof0.5m3.0minnerwind
farm is relatively homogeneous. Wind speed
fluctuations is minimum, wind speed will not occur
obviouschangetrend.
Discuss
This study shows that wind farm can decrease wind
speedwithintheregionof3mfromthesurface.Results
are basically consistent with Robert Vautard(2010),
Adams, Amanda S. Keith, D.W.(2007)who studied the
impact of wind farm on highaltitude meteorological
environmentalbyusingatmosphericcirculationmodel
and
regional
atmospheric
modeling
system(RAMS).That is to say the existence of wind

farm will affect the local wind speed, the wind speed
hasaweakeningtrendafterthewindfarm.Theoverall
wind goes towards to the small wind, the average
wind speed is obviously reduced. Wind speed loss of
highaltitude is in the range of 7% to 33%.It Indicates
that the existence of wind farm has effect on wind
speed for both highaltitude and nearsurface
meteorologicalenvironment.Windturbinesturnwind
energy into electrical energy, and at the same time,
theyalsochangetheatmosphereoftheoriginalenergy
cycle mode. Loss of wind energy is shown as the
reductionofwindspeed.
However, observational data shows that in the
conditionofsmallwind,theinfluenceofwindfarmon
thewindspeedof0.5mfromthesurfaceisnotobvious.
The wind speed of internal wind farm decreases
slightlywiththewindspeedincreases,comparedwith
upwindarea.Moreover,modelsimulationresultsalso
showthat,athighaltitudemeteorologicalenvironment,
theeffectofwindfarmondownwindareawindspeed
is more significant than inner wind farm. The wind
speedofdownwindareadecreasesobviously.Butnear
surface observation data reflects the wind speed
weakened degree of wind speed at downwind area is
lessthantheupwindarea.
Conclusion
1) In two kinds of weather conditions that average
wind speed is 1.52.5 m/sand812 m/s, the regularity
of wind speed at 3.0m and 1.5m height is upwind
area > downwind area>inner wind farm. Wind speed
of internal wind farm decreases obviously. The
maximum amplitude of wind speed under the
conditionof1.52.5m/sand812m/sis28%and7.3%,
respectively. The wind speed of downwind area
reaches more than 95% of the original wind speed of
upwind area. Under the condition of the same wind
speed,windfarmmakesthegreatesteffectofonwind
speedof3.0mheight.Underthewindspeedcondition
of1.52.5m/s,windfarmsinfluenceonwindspeedof
inner wind farm and downwind area is more
significantthantheconditionof
812m/s.
2) Under thetwo kinds ofwindspeed conditions, the
wind speed profile of upwind area, inner wind farm
and downwind area is standard logarithmic
curve .Wind speed of each observation point is
increasedwiththeincreaseofheight.Buttheslopeof
windspeedprofileinwindfarmisminimal,compared
with upwind area. Reduction amplitude is 65% and

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www.ijesci.org InternationalJournalofEnergyScience(IJES)Volume3Issue3,June2013

11%underthewindspeedconditionof1.52.5m/sand
812m/s, respectively. Wind speed change of vertical
gradientinwindfarmislevelingoff.

PHYSICSOFFLUIDS,2011,23(12).
Merete Bruun Christiansen, Charlotte B. Hasager. Wake
effects of large offshore wind farms identified from

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

satellite SAR. Remote Sensing of Environment, 2005,

ThisstudywassupportedbyNationalNaturalScience
FoundationofInnerMongolia(GrantNos.2010ZD16)
and Inner Mongolia Agricultural University NDTD
201011.

98:251268.

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GEOPHYSICALRESEARCH,2010,115.

Ronghui Xu, was born in WeiChang, ChengDe city, HeBei

province in May, 1987. In 2011, graduated from resources
environment and urbanrural planning management
specialty of Inner Mongolia agricultural university, Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, received a bachelors
degree of science. In September, 2011, was admitted to soil
and water conservation and desertification control major of
college of ecology and environmental science, Inner
Mongolia Agricultural University, studied for a masters
degree.