Project Overview

The Mesoscale to Microscale Coupling (MMC) Project was designed to build new high-performance-computing-based multiscale wind plant simulation tools coupling a broad range of scales. The scale interactions enable the optimization needed to ensure the efficient, reliable production and integration of future wind-generated electricity.

Technical Merit

  • Successful models of wind plants require forcing from the larger-scale atmospheric flow to capture the full range of energy-containing flow, including nonstationary motions

  • Integrating the full range of scales allows optimization of wind plant siting, design, and operation

  • The resulting tools will be applicable to diverse locations and operating conditions, as required to support wind energy integration at future high penetration levels

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Fig. 1 Schematic of the flow chart for the MMC Project.

Objectives

  • Establish a validation framework with well-defined performance metrics, and apply it to benchmark wind-plant simulation cases

  • Improve the current state-of-the-science of coupling mesoscale information into high-fidelity HPC-based wind-plant simulations to reduce error in predicting wind speed and turbulence characteristics

  • Disseminate methods with stakeholders

  • Verify and Validate results using formal and reproducible techniques

  • Quantify the uncertainty in the results

Participating Laboratories

  • Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL; Lead Lab)

  • Argonne National Lab (ANL)

  • Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL)

  • Los Alamos National Lab (LANL)

  • National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR; sponsored by National Science Foundation)

  • National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL)

  • Sandia National Lab (SNL)

Industry Symposium

On September 14-15, 2022, the MMC team held an symposium, MMC Methods to Meet the Wind Industry’s Needs. Event recordings can be found on YouTube.

Note

For more information, please see the summary slides provied by Sue Haupt.