Efficiency of High Altitude On-shore Wind Turbines: Air Density and Turbulence Effects—Qollpana Wind Farm (Bolivia)

Abstract

The wind energy is one of the most important alternatives for renewable and clean electricity generation. During the last decade the number of wind farms has largely increased in South America. Qollpana is only one case of an on-shore wind farm but it is located at 2900 m above sea level over a complex terrain. Due to high altitude, the air density is reduced by 27% compared with sea level and the topographic characteristics induce a high level of turbulence. Qollpana wind farm has ten wind turbines reaching 27 MW of installed capacity. October is the month of highest wind average velocity and February with the lowest one. This work analyses the capacity factor of the wind farm, also the air density and the turbulence effects on wind turbine efficiency. The main results show that monthly capacity factor varies between 0.08 and 0.67 in the wind farm. Moreover, the results have shown a considerable effect of the turbulence intensity on the turbines efficiency.