Posting this for my METaR friends who follow the renewable energy sector. I’m not sure if this Boston Globe article is behind a paywall. Here are some snippets:
After testing complicated computer models, they’ve shown that adjusting the rotor blades of turbines at a wind farm — a change that would reduce the efficiency of an individual turbine if it stood alone — can significantly increase the overall power produced by the wind farm.
Typically, wind farm operators focus on achieving the maximum efficiency of individual turbines. Each turbine has its own sensors that measure the direction and speed of the wind, enabling their blades to rotate as close to the wind as possible and capture the maximum amount of energy.
But now scientists have found that, actually, they would be better off orienting the blades of some turbines at a sub-optimal angle to the wind, so each turbine generates slightly less bumpy air, known as a turbulent wake, for turbines downwind. Changing the angle of the blades reduces how much a turbine disturbs the flow of air to those behind it, ultimately increasing their collective output.
If existing wind farms around the world used this method, which the scientists published this month in the journal Nature Energy, the additional electricity could together power the equivalent of 3 million homes in the United States and generate nearly a billion dollars in additional revenue each year for the industry, they said.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/08/19/science/mit-scientist…
The Boston Globe article referenced this Nature Energy publication → https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-022-01085-8
The method that the scientists were able to demonstrate was to point the turbine nacelle at an approximate 20-degree angle from nearby turbines to provide for less impact of what is known as a turbulent wake. The solution requires no new hardware or relocation of existing turbines.
They have tested the new positioning algorithm on a wind farm in India and electric output was increased by 32% under optimal wind conditions. Overall, the increase over a longer period of time was measured at 1.2% increase - which, when applied to the number of turbines globally, could generate significantly more energy than previously thought.
Sounds like a no-brainer to me 
‘38Packard
