Investigating methods to solve large windfarm optimization problems with a minimum number of qubits using circuit-based quantum computers

Abstract

This study investigates quantum computing approaches for solving the windfarm layout optimization (WFLO) problems formulated as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem. We investigate two encoding methods that require fewer than one qubit per grid point: the previously developed Pauli correlation encoding (PCE) and a novel single-qubit operator encoding (SQOE). These methods are tested on three windfarm configurations - two from prior WFLO scaling studies and a new real-world model based on an existing windfarm in Wales. The improved encoding methods allow us to solve WFLO problems on $9\times 9$ grids using up to 20 qubits on a quantum computer simulator. The results show that both encoding methods perform competitively and demonstrate favorable scaling characteristics across the tested systems.