3rd Edition of the
Wind Farm Layout
Optimization Competition

GECCO 2016

The third edition of the Wind Farm Layout Optimization Competition has been cancelled. All interested participants can contact Dennis Wilson dennis.wilson@irit.fr for more information.

Wind farm design has long been an application domain for evolutionary learning and optimization due to the complexity of the design space, and the discontinuities in the search space caused by the wake effects that make it hard to optimize analytically. Now, with a need to increase the renewable energy portfolio, existing wind farm layout approaches are being tested under a variety of scenarios. Newer models to evaluate layouts and newer constraints emerge, demanding more sophistication from the algorithms.

We propose the following competition to enable a basis of comparison for the existing algorithms and to encourage new ways to solve the wind optimization problem. As part of the competition, we will provide layout evaluators, wind field conditions, and baseline performances for the different layout optimization problems. Competitors are expected to contribute to an open source library for wind farm layout optimization.



Competition Goals

This competition aims to bring more realistic problems to algorithm developers and to create an open source library useful beyond the scope of this competition. Historically, stochastic search has been the basis of the best approaches to solving the wind farm layout optimization problem, and as the industry continues to develop new models, constraints, and situations, it is timely that we propose a method for the integration of these two communities. This competition sets the stage for that integration.

Here, we present an open source library for wind farm layout optimization with an API built to support stochastic search algorithms. We will showcase the state of the art algorithms on a platform where the industry can bring their layout evaluation models. Furthermore, by focusing the problem parameters, we will create mechanisms for the type of uniform comparison that has so far been lacking in this field.


APIs and Interfaces

We will provide an API in C++, Java, and MATLAB for optimization algorithms that interacts with our open source wind layout evaluation model, and a basic scenario consisting of sample wind data and wind farm geography and obstacles. Different implementations of the wake model besides the provided versions will have to be approved and validated in advance. An automated submission system (currently under development) will allow competitors to see their rank on a public leader board.


The APIs and examples of use can be found on the API git repository. Please update your github clone from time to time in order to get the very last updates of the API.


Competition Organizers

Dennis Wilson: dennis.wilson@irit.fr

Ilya Loshchilov: ilya@informatik.uni-freiburg.de

Kalyan Veeramachaneni: kalyan@csail.mit.edu