the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
| 05 Feb 2026
Methodology for the analysis of the effect of precipitation on wind farm performance
Abstract. Wind turbines are exposed to rainfall, which has a long-term impact through erosion, and numerous studies have investigated the consequences of leading-edge erosion (LEE) on wind turbine blades. However, the potential effects of precipitation on turbine performance and on the experimental evolution of wakes have not yet been thoroughly analyzed. This paper presents a new methodology to study the impact of precipitation using experimental operational data. The methodology includes the necessary data processing, the definition of relevant meteorological parameters, and appropriate analysis methods. A commercial wind farm is evaluated following the proposed methodology, identifying differences in behavior between dry and rainy conditions at both the individual turbine level and the wind farm and wake levels, while accounting for the quantity and distribution of the available data.
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Status: open (until 05 Mar 2026)
- RC1: 'Comment on wes-2026-30', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Feb 2026 reply
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RC2: 'Comment on wes-2026-30', Anonymous Referee #2, 25 Feb 2026
reply
The article discusses methodology to observe effects of rainfall on wind farm meteorology and production. Given the vulnerability of wind farms to environmental conditions, the topic and associated results have potential to be valuable for industry-scale analysis and scientific significance.
However, the manuscript is not recommended for publication in its current form and major revisions are needed to be reconsidered. In terms of scientific quality, insufficient information is provided on the methodology toward repetition, and minimal discussion/references are provided to connect and validate analysis through related work. Manuscript presentation lacks organization and clarity, contains numerous unsupported claims, and includes incorrect and/or mislabeled results.The provided comments represent brief summaries of observed issues:
- The introduction does not provide sufficient context/motivation for the subject and is vague in describing factors expected to impact wind farm wake variations. There is a large amount of available literature discussing very relevant components of this problem, including (but not limited to): turbulence in single-turbine and farm wakes, the impact of compounding turbine wakes on production, effects of droplet adhesion and erosion on turbine blade aerodynamics, particle/droplet inertial coupling with turbulence (within and without wakes), effects of compounding wake turbulence on particle distributions, etc.
- The methodology is unclear and disorganized, providing little information into exact procedures, filtering techniques, error quantification, etc. Additionally, methods are littered throughout the text and appear as afterthoughts rather than providing concise and sufficient relevance to the analysis.
While this is a problem throughout the text, the following are a few key examples:- The data analysis description should be included and combined with all methodology, especially as the analysis is mentioned as primary input parameters.
- Description of data analysis, verification, and data cleaning provides no measure by which the data are verified, and no discussion of convergence or other means to “ensure the consistency of the original and calculated data”.
- References to data filtering are present within each section. But no details are provided as to how the data were filtered, and whether this filtering was performed only once on the initial dataset or in repeated/subsequent filtering steps.
- The statement “insufficient data” is used throughout the text, but these data are also mentioned to be key factors in validation. If this is the case, why should the presented data/methodology be trusted?
- Several figures presented have no quantified values shown (5,6,8,9,10), leaving comments/references in associated text unsupported. Therefore, they are not useful for comparison of actual mean statistics and contributions based on environmental conditions and turbine production states. Stating comparisons as “left” and “right” or “higher” and “lower” have little impact on quantified validation.
- Discussion related to figures and results is minimal, providing little context for importance to the methodology and/or to wind farm wakes.
- Discussion includes several statements to the importance or non-importance of certain parameters (e.g. density, turbulence intensity, homogeneity, etc.), but does not give context or citations to support why this is declared or why it may (or may not) be relevant.
- Figure 6 is not a set of windrose plots, but a repeat of Figure 5.
- The overall manuscript text contains several incomplete sentences/passages/labels and does not appear to have been reviewed with care prior to submission.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2026-30-RC2
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- 1
The manuscript proposes a methodology to investigate the impact of precipitation on wind turbine performance and wake behaviour using operational wind-farm data. The approach combines dedicated data processing with meteorological characterisation, and the results indicate measurable differences between dry and rainy conditions at both turbine and wind-farm scales.
I find the topic and the overall approach potentially relevant to the wind energy community. However, the manuscript presents several shortcomings in its current form and requires substantial revision to make it suitable for a broad readership. My main comments are as follows:
-Overall, the manuscript describes the rationale used to analyse data extracted from a commercial wind farm. However, the description of the methodology remains too brief. Important information, such as the characteristics and accuracy of the instruments used to collect the data (only briefly mentioned in lines 65–70), is missing. As a result, it is difficult to assess the reliability of the measurements and the validity of the analysis presented in Section 4. Furthermore, the discussion of the underlying physical mechanisms is very limited, and the manuscript mainly presents a data-processing procedure without sufficient interpretation in terms of flow physics and turbine–rain interaction.
-The simulations mentioned in the manuscript are not properly introduced or discussed. Their purpose, assumptions, and main characteristics remain unclear. I recommend adding a dedicated numerical methods section describing the simulation approach and its role within the study.
-While the manuscript distinguishes between rainy and non-rainy conditions, the characterisation of precipitation events is insufficient. Additional information on rain properties, such as intensity, drop size, and measurement methodology, should be provided. At present, it is unclear what specific rain parameters are available and how they influence the analysis.
-The Introduction is too brief for such a complex topic. In particular, it lacks a proper review of previous experimental and numerical studies on the effects of rainfall on wind turbine performance and wakes, both in field conditions and wind-tunnel experiments. The discussion of previous LES studies is also too limited and should be expanded.
-The analysis presented in Figure 4 appears incomplete and requires further clarification.
-The axis labels in Figures 9 and 10 are incomplete and should be corrected.
-Line 195 refers to the IEC 61400-12 Annex M procedure without providing any description or explanation. This should be clarified for readers unfamiliar with this standard.
-Finally, the conclusions remain too general and do not sufficiently highlight the main physical findings, limitations of the study, and implications for wind energy applications.