Steering the wind using LES of yaw-driven power optimization in wind farms

This study investigates wake steering in a 4 × 6 wind farm of 24 NREL 5 MW turbines using high-fidelity Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) coupled with the Actuator Line Method (ALM). Two control strategies are compared: a conventional Greedy mode where each turbine maximizes its own power, and a Cooperative mode optimized with the FLORIS framework through coordinated yaw misalignment. The cooperative strategy increases total mean power from 28.2 MW to 34.4 MW (+21.8%) while reducing front-row loads and enhancing wake recovery, leading to downstream power gains up to +80%. Temporal metrics reveal reduced periodicity and lower spectral coherence, indicating smoother and less correlated power dynamics. Overall, cooperative yaw control improves wake mixing, balances aerodynamic loading, and significantly enhances global energy capture efficiency.