The rapid global development of urbanization has led to increased building densities. Wind-energy-harnessing dense building array in urban areas is a contemporary initiative to increase the share of affordable and clean energy in global energy production. This study comprehensively investigates the accuracy of computational fluid dynamics simulations for predicting mean and turbulent wind characteristics over a typical 3 × 3 building array placed in close proximity. The three-dimensional steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes and Reynolds stress model models provide the most accurate wind velocity, turbulence intensity, and wind power density predictions for a typical building array. We evaluate various impact parameters of urban building arrays, including (1) plan area density, (2) unequal building height arrangements with and without balconies, (3) balcony depth, and (4) balcony density. Based on our results, we recommend a plan area density (λp) of 0.4 as the mounting site of wind turbines due to its excellent average power density and unacceptable turbulence region. The arrangement of buildings, the presence of balconies, and balcony design significantly modify urban wind patterns. The depth of balconies from 2.5 to 10 mm will increase average wind power density by 25% at wind directions of 0°, and the difference is minimal at wind direction of 45°. Lower balcony densities are more suitable for installing wind turbines on rooftops. Furthermore, the results provide design guidelines for compact building arrays with balconies for urban planning and wind energy exploitation.
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Wind energy potential in compact urban areas with balconies
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January 2025
Research Article|
January 14 2025
Wind energy potential in compact urban areas with balconies

Special Collection:
Flow and Civil Structures
Wen-Yu Wang (王文豫)
;
Wen-Yu Wang (王文豫)
a)
(Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
Department of Energy and Refrigerating Air-Conditioning Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology
, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
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Min-Chen Tsai (蔡旻辰);
Min-Chen Tsai (蔡旻辰)
(Conceptualization, Validation, Visualization)
2
Department of Greenergy, National University of Tainan
, Tainan City, Taiwan
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Zhong-Han Liu (劉忠翰)
Zhong-Han Liu (劉忠翰)
(Investigation, Software, Validation, Visualization)
2
Department of Greenergy, National University of Tainan
, Tainan City, Taiwan
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
Physics of Fluids 37, 015203 (2025)
Article history
Received:
October 11 2024
Accepted:
December 08 2024
Connected Content
A companion article has been published:
Balconies can guide wind turbine placement in cities
Citation
Wen-Yu Wang, Min-Chen Tsai, Zhong-Han Liu; Wind energy potential in compact urban areas with balconies. Physics of Fluids 1 January 2025; 37 (1): 015203. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0243434
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