Optimal wind-turbine micro-siting of offshore wind farms: A grid-like layout approach

•A novel approach to optimize grid-like layouts of offshore wind farms is presented.•A new approach is proposed to handle realistic constraints on maximum occupied area.•Several improvements and measures to prevent premature convergence are proposed.•The behavior of genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization is compared.•The layout of a real project, the Horns Rev 3 OWF, is optimized considering publicly available data.