Observation and Simulation of Lightning Strikes in an Offshore Wind Turbine Cluster

Based on the detection data of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau lightning location system from 2013 to 2022, this paper analyzes the characteristics of lightning strikes in an offshore wind turbine cluster (WTC) in Guangdong. This is the first time to quantify the lightning strikes difference between the inner and outer wind turbines (WTs) and discuss the impact mechanisms of WTCs on the characteristics of lightning strikes by the simulation results of electric potential distribution. The observation results show that the stroke density, cloud-to-ground (CG) flash density, and average peak current within the affected area increase by 10.1%, 11%, and 5.1%, respectively, but the lightning multiplicity changes little. The inner and outer WTs show different characteristics of lightning strikes. The stroke density, lightning multiplicity, and average peak current in the area of outer WTs increase by 21%, 4.1%, and 6.8%, respectively, while in the area of inner WTs decrease by 20.2%, 19%, and 3.9%, respectively. The CG flash density in the area of outer WTs increases by 16.1% but changes little in the area of inner WTs. The simulation results show there is a significant difference in the electric potential distribution between the inner and outer WTs: the distortion effect of the outer WTs on spatial electric potential is stronger than that of the inner WTs at a greater height, but the difference is not obvious at a lower height. Such a difference in electric potential distribution leads to different characteristics of lightning strikes between the inner and outer WTs.