Satellite-Based Monitoring Reveals Key Drivers of Wind Turbine Wake Losses

As part of InnoWind's WP1 and WP2, researcher Cem Özcan has developed a satellite-based method using ESA Sentinel-1 radar data to monitor wind turbine wake losses at the Tahkoluoto offshore wind farm near Pori, Finland. Drawing on a 7.5-year dataset (2017–2024) filtered down to 72 high-quality observations, the analysis shows that atmospheric stability is the key driver of wake strength: stable conditions common in the Baltic Sea produce wind speed reductions of 12–14%, which—because power output scales with the cube of wind speed—can translate into roughly 30% lower production for turbines caught in the wake. Validated against independent FMI weather data, the results establish a scalable, transferable pipeline for satellite-based wake monitoring, offering wind farm operators a practical new tool to identify losses and improve efficiency.