YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

What is VENTOS?

VENTOS (“winds” in Portuguese) is a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) code specifically developed for wind farm and related applications. CFD codes solve problems involving fluid flows and have been used for decades in the development of aircrafts, ships and automobiles among other things.

How do I contract Natural Power to provide Complex Site Assessment Services?

Just send us approximate turbine locations and a wind rose together with what you’re expecting from the study. We’ll generally send you a quote within 24 hours. Confidentiality guaranteed.

How does it relate to stages within a wind farm project, and who might be interested in using it?

A CFD study can be carried out:

• Before construction in order to gain confidence about turbine locations
• During construction, in order to know if trees are to be felled or not for example
• After construction in order to troubleshoot operational wind farms

How does it relate to Natural Power’s services and other products?

A CFD study will be substituted to a classical wind study whenever a site is too complex for the latter to provide accurate results. However outputs from the CFD study can be substituted to outputs from classical wind studies. A CFD study can therefore be fully integrated into the energy yield assessment process.

ZephIR, our lidar wind profiler , measurements can be used in order to seed the CFD model with high-resolution wind measurements. VENTOS can also be used in order to relate ZephIR measurements to mast measurements in complex terrain.

Melogale, our operational site analysis tool, and ZephIR can be used together with VENTOS in order to troubleshoot operational wind farms.

VENTOS computations can also be integrated into ForeSite, our wind farm forecasting tool, in order to improve the accuracy of power forecasts in complex flow environments.

How does it work in simple terrain and offshore?

VENTOS includes equations that enable the model to perform in complex terrain. On non-complex terrain VENTOS performs as well as linear models (WaSP). However it is our policy to recommend VENTOS only when it is beneficial to the study and will add value to our clients’ project.

What does the data look like and how can I use this data in more traditional tools?

Datasets mainly include wind speed, turbulence intensity, wind shear and inflow angle. They are provided in the form of:

• Tables providing values of pertinent variables at turbine and mast locations
• 2D maps of the same variables which can be viewed in most GIS Software. These maps can then be used for site optimization
• Other formats (WRG, curves) depending on your needs

What do you need me to provide you with to start a project?

We will need a topographic map, a roughness map, tree height and density if applicable, and turbine coordinates if available. If you are missing one of them we will figure out a way to get them for you.

We will also need as much available on site measurement data as possible in order to calibrate the model properly.

Who else supplies VENTOS to the wind industry?

Natural Power has an exclusive consulting agreement with the University of Porto that created and continues to develop VENTOS. We jointly believe in offering CFD as a consultancy service to ensure that the right expertise is applied, allowing our clients to benefit from our global experience in supplying CFD modelling for wind farms.