Honeybee behavior informs efficiency of wind farms

An algorithm based on the altruistic behavior of honey bees can help wind farm designers know exactly where to place each turbine in the array to maximize efficiency and energy output from the wind farm. A group from India discusses the details in International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology.

Determine the optimal locations on the wind farm for each turbine to maximize energy output is a complex constrained optimization problem. Such problems are common in engineering and many other areas of human endeavor. Solving such problems often requires a great deal of mathematical power and computing resources, but fortunately, in recent years, researchers have turned to natural system to help them find solutions much more efficiently and faster.

Nature has had millions of years to develop optimal systems to deal with complex problem face the living creatures. In some cases, researchers have studied these systems and modeled them algorithmically. Those algorithms can then be exploited to solve unnatural problems.

Nirmala Sharma, Harish Sharma and Ajay Sharma of Rajasthan Technical Univerisity and Jagdish Chand Bansal of South Asian University in New Delhi, India, explain that swarming behavior of honey bees is often associated with individuals less well suited to the behavior. current vis sacrifice their positions for those more suitable.

Sacrifice algorithm that this behavioral pattern translates to the position of each turbine in a wind farming system so that one position is tested and sacrificed in favor of a better location based on wind patterns and the effects of neighboring turbines for individuals being tested for a new position. Thus, the algorithm accumulates layouts for turbines in a wind farm where each location is optimal for certain geographical features to provide the greatest possible power output.

The algorithm can also give engineers the maximum number of turbines needed for a given site. The optimal number will be maximum energy manufacturing. Too little and the site won’t harness all of the available wind power, while too much wastes resources and can reduce total output from turbines as their rotation impedes the flow of incoming wind and passing through neighboring turbines. The team demonstrated proof of principle with wind farms with a radius of 500, 750 and 1,000 meters. The next step would be to look at the real geographic landscape and optimize for heterogeneous wind patterns.