Caltech researchers show efficient placement multiplies wind-turbine power

PASADENA - A research team led by Caltech professor and MacArthur "genius" grant recipient John Dabiri has shown power output at wind farms can be increased at least tenfold by optimizing placement of turbines on a given plot of land.



As a result, Dabiri said, "much of the wind energy that enters a wind farm is never tapped."


In field tests last summer, Dabiri showed that an arrangement with vertical-axis wind turbines - which he spaced more closely together than would be possible with traditional, propeller-style turbines - generated from 21 to 47 watts of power per square meter of land area. A comparably sized farm with traditional, horizontal-axis turbines generates only 2 to 3 watts per square meter.

"We're on the right track, but this is by no means 'mission accomplished,'" Dabiri said.
