Siting

To estimate the energy production of a wind power plant, it is essential to have exceptional knowledge of the wind resource. With our extensive experience and expertise, Vestas is able to optimise the layout of even the most complex sites, by considering turbine choice and micro-siting.

Optimised site layout

In optimising the layout of a wind power plant site, Vestas performs Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analyses. CFD estimates wind flow over the terrain and performs simulations showing turbulence at the actual wind turbine locations. We also undertake the Vestas Site Check (VSC), which ensures that the turbines are positioned to achieve the highest energy production and lowest turbine loads.

Cost of energy over the full project lifecycle

Siting is not just about placing the wind turbines where the wind blows the most. Siting is about the total cost of harvesting the wind, including wear and tear on the turbines, and achieving the highest possible return on investment for the wind power plant. Vestas’ unique insight into critical factors such as design loads and operating costs ensures that customers benefit from a holistic cost-of-energy approach to optimising the efficiency of a wind power plant and increasing business case certainty over the project lifecycle.

Siting tools and expertise

We have an extensive range of expertise and tools dedicated to siting. This includes more than 100 siting professionals with access to fleet-wide operational data, industry standard tools and specific Vestas tools. Our siting engineers are supported by our Wind and Site Competence Centre which houses meteorologists, statisticians, physicists, mathematicians, CFD specialists, oceanographers, business analysts and financial engineers. In addition, our in-house supercomputer which is amongst the biggest in the world enables us to integrate different tools and data sets, maximising our ability to deliver successful wind power projects for customers.