Comment on “A theoretical upper limit for offshore wind energy extraction” by Simão Ferreira et al. (2026)

van der Laan, Maarten Paul; Watson, Simon

doi:10.5194/wes-11-3763-2026

Articles | Volume 11, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-11-3763-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-11-3763-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 10

Peer-reviewed comment

|

01 Oct 2026

Peer-reviewed comment |

| 01 Oct 2026

Comment on “A theoretical upper limit for offshore wind energy extraction” by Simão Ferreira et al. (2026)

Maarten Paul van der Laan and Simon Watson

Model code and software

Python script and input data for Wind Energy Science article: Comment on "A theoretical upper limit for offshore wind energy extraction" by Simão Ferreira et al. (2026) M. Paul van der Laan https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21370569

Short summary

A theoretical limit for the energy extraction of offshore wind farms has been suggested by Simão Ferreira et al. (2026) based on a simple model of an infinite wind farm and an ad hoc method to correct the model for application to finite wind farms. In this work, we discuss a number of concerns and we conclude that the limit proposed in Simão Ferreira et al. (2026) is not a theoretical limit but rather a limit supported by the non-reproducible finite wind farm correction.