EVOLUTION AND WIND

Professor Using Evolution To Help Increase Wind Farm Productivity
5 May 2011 (North American Windpower)

"Evolution is providing the inspiration for a computer science research professor at the University of Adelaide to find the best placement of wind turbines to increase wind farm productivity.

"Frank Neumann, a senior lecturer from the university's school of computer science, is using a step-by-step approach called evolutionary algorithms to optimize wind turbine placement. This method takes into account wake effects, the minimum amount of land needed, wind factors and the complex aerodynamics of wind turbines."

And without wind, it could be DEvolution (click to enlarge)

"An evolutionary algorithm is a mathematical process where potential solutions are improved one step at a time until the optimum is reached, says Neumann…

"He is working on wind turbine placement optimization in collaboration with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology…The researchers are now looking to fine-tune the algorithms even further using different models of wake effect and complex aerodynamic factors."