The Shenao site on Taiwan’s northeastern coast, formerly occupied by a coal-fired power plant, is being considered for renewable energy development. This study presents the first systematic wind energy assessment of a repurposed power plant site in Taiwan, integrating field measurements, long-term wind data extrapolation, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Nearly two years of Doppler LiDAR observations were collected to characterize wind speed distribution, shear exponent, turbulence intensity, and flow inclination. To extend this record, the Measure-Correlate-Predict (MCP) method with reanalysis datasets was applied to estimate long-term wind conditions. In parallel, high-resolution CFD simulations incorporating LiDAR data and local terrain were conducted to map wind fields, evaluate wind power density, and support turbine micrositing. Results indicate moderate wind potential, with a CFD-estimated wind power density of ~200 W m ⁻² . A preliminary layout with three Vestas V80 turbines yields an average of ~1,392 full-load hours per year and a capacity factor (CF) of 15.9%, comparable to typical onshore wind farms. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of repurposing fossil-fuel sites for wind energy and establish a transferable framework for assessing wind resources in complex terrain.

Cooling-water intake basins in coastal power plants may experience particle retention and sediment deposition when complex inlet geometry produces large-scale recirculation and low-velocity zones near intake structures. This study examines the use of submerged barriers to mitigate particle retention in a de-identified coastal power-plant intake basin using hydraulic model experiments and hydraulic-model-supported three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A geometrically consistent model-scale configuration, including the inlet channel, main basin, three intake openings, and two outlet passages, was used to preserve site confidentiality while retaining the essential hydraulic mechanisms. Surface-flow patterns, water-depth variations, and sediment-deposition behavior were measured in the physical model and used to assess the numerical model. The numerical results, supported by the available hydraulic-model observations, reproduced the dominant counterclockwise recirculation and a broadly similar retention-prone region. The simulated water depths agreed closely with the measurements, with relative errors below 0.50% for the finest mesh. A water-depth-based grid-sensitivity assessment using 1,221,165; 2,414,216; and 3,378,840 computational cells further showed that the predicted mean water depths remained within 1.15% of the experimental measurements. The assessed numerical model was then applied to examine submerged-barrier configurations installed near the inlet-to-basin transition, with the barrier-performance interpretation limited to the tested mesh, the assumed representative particle condition, and the available qualitative flow/deposition evidence. Under this assumed particle-tracking condition, the original configuration retained 6989 particles at t = 200 s, whereas the 6 cm submerged barrier reduced the retained-particle count to 4956, corresponding to a reduction of approximately 29.1%. In contrast, the 15 cm emergent barrier increased the retained-particle count to 7573 because it blocked overtopping flow and induced new separated low-velocity regions. These results indicate that, among the tested configurations and under the assumed representative particle condition, the 6 cm submerged barrier yielded the lowest retained-particle count, whereas an excessively high barrier may deteriorate the internal flow structure and increase particle accumulation.