Design better wind farms. Faster.
A comprehensive online tool that uses advanced optimization algorithms to design wind farm infrastructure — roads, crane pads, electrical networks, and foundations — reducing costs and accelerating project development.
The problem
Wind farm infrastructure — roads, medium-voltage cables, crane pads, foundations — can account for up to 30% of total project investment. Traditional design methods rely on manual iteration: engineers draw layouts by hand, estimate earthworks from spreadsheets, and route cables based on experience. This works, but it leaves significant savings on the table. When a project has 100+ turbines spread over complex terrain, the number of possible configurations is enormous — far too many for manual exploration.
The solution
Wind Farm Optimizer applies graph theory, metaheuristic algorithms, and domain knowledge to find the most cost-effective infrastructure layout for your project. Upload your turbine coordinates and terrain data, configure your technical constraints, and let the algorithms explore thousands of configurations in minutes — not weeks.
It was built by a wind energy engineer with 15+ years of hands-on experience designing Balance of Plant infrastructure across 50+ countries. Every module reflects real-world engineering practice, not academic theory.
vs. manual design
(proximity to theoretical optimum)
for a typical wind farm
What it does
Electrical Network Optimization
Configure voltage, power factor, cable specifications, and technical constraints (voltage drop, power losses). The optimizer designs the medium-voltage cable network connecting turbines to the substation, selecting the right cable cross-section for each segment and minimizing total cable cost.
Minimum Spanning Tree (MST)
Calculate the shortest possible network connecting all turbines and substations. The algorithm considers no-go areas (environmental constraints, restricted zones) and existing roads that can be reused, producing a network that serves as the backbone for road and cable routing.
Road Network Optimization
Upload your Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and the optimizer generates the best internal road layout considering topography, minimizing gradients and earthwork volumes. The result: shorter roads with gentler slopes, reducing construction costs and making transport logistics safer.
Crane Pad Layout Optimization
For each turbine position, the algorithm finds the optimal rotation angle and platform elevation that minimizes earth movement (cut and fill). It tests multiple orientations and computes the earthwork balance for each, selecting the configuration with the lowest cost.
Crane Movement Planning
Plan efficient crane assembly and dismantling sequences for the construction phase. Optimize the order in which turbines are erected to minimize crane mobilization time and travel distance across the site.
Foundation Preliminary Design
Input your soil data and turbine loads to run preliminary foundation checks: overturning stability, operational no-gap verification, soil bearing pressure, and foundation spring rate. The tool sizes the gravity foundation (pedestal diameter, plate diameter, slope, and depth) and identifies the most cost-effective geometry.
Cable Circuit Design
Create optimal electrical circuits that group turbines into feeders connected to the substation. The algorithm selects cable sections, checks ampacity limits, and minimizes total cable cost while respecting voltage drop and power loss constraints.
GIS Viewer & Visualization
Review your entire design on an interactive map. Define no-go areas, overlay existing roads, position turbines and substations directly on the map, and visualize the optimized layout — roads, cables, crane pads — all in one view.
Under the hood
Wind Farm Optimizer combines multiple optimization algorithms, each selected for the type of problem it solves best:
- Kruskal’s MST algorithm — builds the initial minimum-cost network connecting all turbines
- Tabu Search — refines solutions by exploring alternatives while avoiding previously visited configurations, escaping local optima
- Perturbation Analysis — systematically tests variations to find improvements that static methods miss
- Dijkstra’s algorithm (modified) — finds optimal cable paths with custom weight functions that account for electrical constraints, not just distance
The multi-stage approach — input analysis, initial layout, optimization, validation — ensures that every solution is technically feasible, not just mathematically optimal.
How it works
Upload coordinates
Paste from Excel, upload a CSV, or enter turbine positions manually. Set your UTM zone and hemisphere.
Configure parameters
Set electrical specs (voltage, cables, constraints), upload your DEM for terrain analysis, define no-go areas.
Optimize & review
Run the algorithms, review the results on the GIS viewer, download reports, iterate as needed.
Built by an engineer, for engineers
Wind Farm Optimizer was created by the same engineer behind this blog. After 15+ years designing wind farm infrastructure across 50+ countries — from the deserts of Morocco to the peatlands of Scotland, from the mountains of Chile to the plains of Jordan — the patterns became clear: the same optimization problems appear on every project, and they can be solved algorithmically.
This is not a substitute for professional engineering judgment — it is a tool to make that judgment faster, more informed, and more effective.
Help shape the future of this tool
Wind Farm Optimizer is in active development. Have you tried the beta? Do you have ideas for new features, or would you like to contribute to its development? Your feedback from real projects is invaluable.
Get in touch →Ready to optimize your next project?
Wind Farm Optimizer is available online, 24/7. No installation required.