Supercomputing the Expansion of Wind Power

Researchers are using TACC supercomputers to map out a path towards growing wind power as an energy source in the United States. “This research is the first detailed study designed to develop scenarios for how wind energy can expand from the current levels of seven percent of U.S. electricity supply to achieve the 20 percent by 2030 goal outlined by the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in 2014.”

Video: Optimizing Wind Power with the ExaWind Project at NREL

In this video, Scott Gibson discusses the ExaWind project for windmill simulation with Michael Sprague from NREL. ExaWind is part of the ECP, which is building applications that will scale to tomorrow’s Exascale machines. “Sprague also explains why the simulation is important because it demonstrates that the physics models of the ExaWind team will perform well on large computers and paves the way for the team to improve the models and direct simulation capability toward the exascale platform when it’s ready. He added that, ultimately, the team plans to simulate tens of large turbines within a large wind farm.”

Boosting Wind Power with Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is another tool that is helping the wind power sector up its game. “We are seeing movement from most engineering companies to cloud computing as the economics are better and the security of the cloud has improved. Additionally, massive amounts of resources are available cheaply and bandwidth has increased to match the needs of the wind power simulation space.”