Do Wind Turbines Pose Roll Hazards to Light Aircraft? | CU Experts

Abstract. Wind energy accounted for 5.6 % of all electricity generation in the United States in 2016. Much of this development has occurred in rural locations, where open spaces favorable for harnessing wind also serve general aviation airports. As such, nearly 40 % of all U.S. wind turbines exist within 10 km of a small airport. Wind turbines generate electricity by extracting momentum from the atmosphere, creating downwind wakes characterized by wind-speed deficits and increased turbulence. Recently, the concern that turbine wakes pose hazards for small aircraft has been used to limit wind farm development. Herein, we assess roll hazards to small aircraft using large-eddy simulations of a utility-scale turbine wake. Wind-generated rolling moments on hypothetical aircraft transecting the wake in stably and neutrally stratified conditions are calculated. In both cases, only 0.001 % of rolling moments experienced by hypothetical aircraft during down-wake and cross-wake transects lead to an increased risk of rolling.;

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