Co-operative Progress in Distributed Wind and Hydrokinetic Energy Systems

About this Research Topic

Background

In the quest for reliable, sustainable, and affordable energy, offshore renewable resources such as wind and hydrokinetic energy are now being considered more seriously as sustainable alternatives. While progress has been made in large-scale wind power generation, researchers and engineers are now looking to advance the smaller-scale or distributed wind energy market.

Distributed wind energy refers to wind turbines with a capacity of less than 1 MW. These turbines can provide energy independence, and in some cases, return excess energy back to the grid. The growing interest in distributed wind energy has led to increased research efforts, including a new program launched by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) called "Distributed Wind Research." This program is aimed at advancing distributed wind energy technologies and systems.

One key area of emphasis for the Distributed Wind Research program is to investigate the links between distributed wind turbines and hydrokinetic turbines. Hydrokinetic energy systems harness the power of moving water to generate electricity, offering a new approach to renewable energy generation that can be installed in oceans, rivers, and lakes. The wave energy systems encompass research and advancements in harnessing the energy from waves to generate electricity. Topics may include wave energy converter technologies, wave resource assessment, wave farm design and optimization, and wave energy conversion efficiency. Meanwhile, the utilization of ocean currents and tidal flows includes tidal turbine technologies, current energy resource assessment, current farm layout and optimization, and energy extraction techniques. Moreover, the grid integration of current and wave energy systems would be correspondingly deemed the research topic. However, work still needs to be done to optimize and scale up these systems.

This Research Topic aims to collect recent advances in distributed Wind Energy and Hydrokinetic energy research areas. Thus, research papers in the following areas are most welcome, which include
• Numerical Methods and Models: developing advanced numerical methods and models for simulating aero-hydrodynamic interactions in wave, wind, and tidal energy systems. This includes boundary elements methods (BEM), computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques, multiphase flow modeling, turbulence modeling, and coupling methods for fluid-structure interaction, and
• Wind Energy Systems: Contributing studies focusing on aero-hydrodynamic simulations of wind turbines and wind farms. This can include topics such as wake interactions, aerodynamic performance optimization, and turbulence modeling.
• Wave Energy Converters (WECs): investigating the aero-hydrodynamic aspects of WECs, which capture energy from ocean waves. Topics of interest can include numerical simulations of wave-to-wire models, hydrodynamic performance optimization, power absorption efficiency, advanced control strategy, social and economic assessment, and the impact of aero-hydrodynamic forces on the structural design.
• Tidal and Current Energy Systems: Highlight the importance of aero-hydrodynamic simulations in the design and analysis of tidal and current energy devices. Topics of interest may include numerical modeling of turbine arrays, hydrodynamic load prediction, efficiency enhancement techniques, and environmental impact assessments.
• Integration of multiple energy systems: assess the economic and technical feasibility of integrating offshore wind, wave, tide, and other renewable energy devices. Topics of interest may include numerical simulation and experimental testing of the scaled hybrid system, sea trials of large-scale prototypes, and economic and environmental assessment of the integration system.
• Advanced Simulation Tools and Validation: innovating simulation tools, software platforms, and validation methodologies specific to aero-hydrodynamic simulations. This can include the development of open-source codes, benchmarking studies, and experimental validation techniques for improving the accuracy and reliability of simulations.

Keywords: wind, hydrokinetic energy, large-scale wind power, energy systems, distributed wind, wind turbines, reynolds number, hydrokinetic turbine technology, propellers, blades, remote power systems, high turbulence, aerodynamic and hydrodynamic modeling

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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