I’m not sure where this is going, but the first thing I thought of was this old sci-fi movie “Them“:
Via Eurekalert: Evolutionary lessons for wind farm efficiency
Evolution is providing the inspiration for University of Adelaide computer science research to find the best placement of turbines to increase wind farm productivity.
Senior Lecturer Dr Frank Neumann, from the School of Computer Science, is using a “selection of the fittest” step-by-step approach called “evolutionary algorithms” to optimise wind turbine placement. This takes into account wake effects, the minimum amount of land needed, wind factors and the complex aerodynamics of wind turbines.
“Renewable energy is playing an increasing role in the supply of energy worldwide and will help mitigate climate change,” says Dr Neumann. “To further increase the productivity of wind farms, we need to exploit methods that help to optimise their performance.”
Dr Neumann says the question of exactly where wind turbines should be placed to gain maximum efficiency is highly complex. “An evolutionary algorithm is a mathematical process where potential solutions keep being improved a step at a time until the optimum is reached,” he says.
“You can think of it like parents producing a number of offspring, each with differing characteristics,” he says. “As with evolution, each population or ‘set of solutions’ from a new generation should get better. These solutions can be evaluated in parallel to speed up the computation.”
Other biology-inspired algorithms to solve complex problems are based on ant colonies.
“Ant colony optimisation” uses the principle of ants finding the shortest way to a source of food from their nest.
“You can observe them in nature, they do it very efficiently communicating between each other using pheromone trails,” says Dr Neumann. “After a certain amount of time, they will have found the best route to the food – problem solved. We can also solve human problems using the same principles through computer algorithms.”
Dr Neumann has come to the University of Adelaide this year from Germany where he worked at the Max Planck Institute. He is working on wind turbine placement optimisation in collaboration with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Current approaches to solving this placement optimisation can only deal with a small number of turbines,” Dr Neumann says. “We have demonstrated an accurate and efficient algorithm for as many as 1000 turbines.”
The researchers are now looking to fine-tune the algorithms even further using different models of wake effect and complex aerodynamic factors.
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I had a visual of people scurrying around, moving the windmills, every time the wind changed direction……….
Optimizing the locations of the deck chairs on the Titanic.
I think all of this very smart innovation is totally excellent.
The really cool thing as that it can be applied to useful problem solving as well as this sort of thing.
I propose that these wind turbines should be distributed so that one of each is sited on the residential property of every legislator who votes for their creation, every government officer of the executive branch who implements the enabling legislative acts and regulations, and every judge who rules in favor of their construction.
Let’s turn “NIMBY” on its head. You want it done on the public dime, you pork-feeding bastiches?
Okay, you live with the consequences.
After much research it was discovered that the most cost efficient place for the wind turbines was at the bottom of the North Atlantic.
Oh. You mean string them all over the ridge line of a mountain range. That was hard. And extraordinarily ugly. And extremely expensive to transmit. Costs a fortune for a technology that is archaic, inefficient, and relies upon cheap Chinese labor to make substandard turbines that consistently fail decades before useful expectancy or depreciation schedules.
Where do they find these people?
Almost makes you want to lose the will to live!
I’m sure there are some bug in this system that will have to bee worked out.
While wind-driven electrical generation is not-ready-for-prime-time, I do think it is important to keep researching it for more optimal solutions. While it is unlikely to be able to replace fossil-fuel or nuclear driven plants, they can augment the electrical reserve.
The real problem with wind power is the governments’ insistence on ramming an immature technology down citizens’ throats. That is a short sighted approach, and will do much to harm the public perception of the technology, which jeopardizes any future potential it may have.
Well, I’m about a mile away from a University of Delaware wind turbine. Depending on the wind direction there is a very noticeable noise coming off of the blades (wake vortex I assume) . “Optimal” placement sounds good but depending on what you’re optimizing you can wind up with bad knock-on effects. For example I could see them creating an in phase situation that amplifies the noise or even starts shaking things apart if there is a resonant frequency.
And I think all the time and energy going into wind power should be invested in nuclear.
“Ant colony optimisation” uses the principle of ants finding the shortest way to a source of food from their nest.
“You can observe them in nature, they do it very efficiently…”
Huh? In the 12X60 pre-fab building (trailer) where I work I’ve tracked the buggers coming through the window six feet behind my desk, going up along the ceiling line, down over doorways and over electrical cords, the entire length of the room and back just to end up on my desk.
Obviously the perfect model for placing windmills.
So-called scientists are forever trying to justify their “research” by looking for fancy ways to explain the simple observation that the fit survive. How long will we endure endless speeches and models describing the tautology that the most fit survive because they produce the most offspring because they were the most fit! It’s all so useless, especially as applied to the futile pursuit getting energy from today’s windmills.
“Optimizing the locations of the deck chairs on the Titanic.” (JamesS, May 4, 2011 at 9:24 am)
ROFLMAO for 5 minutes now….Ouch! This hurts.
Demonstrated capacity factors for windfarms tend to be in the 20 to 30 percent range. It is hard to visualize “opimization” by computer program doing much for the consumers and taxpayers at those levels but the subsidized “investors” may benefit. Don’t tell me who pays for this stuff…. let me guess!
This location
http://domesticfuel.com/2011/05/04/off-shore-wind-park-in-germany-powers-up/
looks like it might work out.
Germany is getting 17% of its electricity from renewables.
“Genetic programming” has been around for 20 years. Hardly novel. The results of using it on this problem are tied to the accuracy of their models of what the “genes” in the “organism” will produce. Given the track record of models of wind turbines, I am not hopeful that they will produce anything more than just another research grant request.
Actually this kind of thing is done fairly regularly. 3D seismics interpretations use “Ant Tracking” algorhithims to look at the seismic signatures and use neuro-networks to map subsurface faults and other features
Some context on the amount of innovation here: Genetic and evolutionary algorithms have been understood since the 1970s, and available in off the shelf commercial products since about 1990.
Surely it must be possible to place a batch of diesel driven turbines in the optimum position to create sufficient wind to drive conventional wind turbines when the wind isn’t blowing. No complicated algorithm required.
Problem solved. Sarc/
There, I fixed it for you.
Senior Lecturer Dr Frank Neumann, from the School of Computer Science, is using a “selection of the fittest” step-by-step approach called “evolutionary algorithms” to optimize the acquisition of grant money. Taking into account wake effects, the minimum amount of land needed, wind factors and the complex aerodynamics of wind turbines, the estimated monetary outlay should be phenomenal.
“Renewable energy is playing an increasing role in the supply of energy worldwide and will help mitigate climate change,” says Dr Neumann. “To further increase the productivity of wind farms, we need to exploit” the gullible public in order to optimize the movement of cash.
“Renewable energy is playing an increasing role in the supply of energy worldwide and will help mitigate climate change,” says Dr Neumann. “To further increase the productivity of wind farms, we need to exploit methods that help to optimise their performance.”
We’ll be needing a miracle then.
Just put an ant on the rim of an empty plant pot – and watch it go round and round and round and round, following its own pheromone trail.
It will not get off that rim to join its colony, it cannot break off its own trail.
Mindless, just like building more and more wind turbines …
Yep – ants are a good model for optimising wind turbine placements. We’ve seen the results …
This looks like a Good Location.
If they considered the optimization of economic benefit for their country, the windmills would be positioned in (and funded by) neighboring countries.