The Invisible Costs of Wake Losses And How to Fix Them

You Can't Fix What You Can't See

Wake losses are among the most underestimated threats to wind farm performance. When one turbine disrupts the airflow to another, it causes turbulence and energy loss, often silently eating away at your site’s annual energy production (AEP).

Across the industry, wake losses can account for 5–20% of total AEP loss, a massive hit to profitability, especially in tightly packed or aging farms.

In this edition of The Wind Brief, we shine a light on what wake losses are, why they matter more in 2025, and how smart wind farm owners are reclaiming lost megawatts.

1. What Are Wake Losses, Exactly? Wake loss occurs when wind passes through an upstream turbine and reaches downstream turbines with:

• Lower wind speeds

• Increased turbulence

• Unstable flow

The result? Turbines behind others produce less power, experience higher wear and tear, and underperform.

Analogy: Think of wake loss like drafting in car racing, except it hurts instead of helps.

2. Where Wake Losses Hurt the Most Wake effects are worst when:

• Turbines are tightly spaced (especially <5 rotor diameters apart)

• Wind comes from a dominant direction (unidirectional flow causes repetitive losses)

• Terrain funnels wind through narrow rows or valleys

• Old layouts didn’t account for today’s larger rotors

Global hotspot: Some wind farms in India and China lose up to 25% AEP from poorly planned turbine spacing and alignment.

3. How to Measure Wake Losses The old-school approach was post-construction loss estimation. Today’s tools are more precise:

• LiDAR and SoDAR systems to map wind flow and turbulence

• SCADA data analysis for detecting drop-off patterns

• Digital twins that simulate airflow dynamics across different scenarios

Tip: Combine LiDAR with yaw misalignment correction to isolate losses from turbulence vs. mis-angled blades.

4. How to Reduce Wake Losses. You can’t redesign your layout, but you can reclaim energy through smarter operations:

• Wake steering (yaw optimization): Intentionally angle front turbines to redirect the wake away from downstream units

• Dynamic curtailment: Temporarily slow some turbines to boost total farm output

• Optimized layout design for repowering

• Advanced control algorithms that adapt in real time to wind conditions

Case Study: A North Sea wind farm improved AEP by 4% through wake steering alone, without adding a single new turbine.

5. Wake Losses & Turbine Life Wake effects aren’t just about lost production. Increased turbulence also:

• Shortens blade life

• Accelerates yaw and pitch system fatigue

• Increases gearbox failures

Insight: Reducing wake turbulence can add 3–5 years to component lifespan, a major cost saver.

Final Word: A Problem Worth Solving. Wake losses are silent but solvable. As wind farm portfolios mature, the smartest operators are moving beyond basic availability metrics to precision performance tuning.

Action Item: Run a wake loss audit on your top 5 underperforming turbines. You might find a hidden goldmine of recoverable energy.

Next Week in The Wind Brief: “How to Decode Your SCADA Data Without a PhD.”