Abstract. This paper considers the application of a scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) CFD formulation for the modeling of single and waked wind turbines in flows of different turbulence intensities. The SAS approach is compared to a large-eddy simulation (LES) formulation, as well as to experimental measurements performed in a boundary layer wind tunnel with scaled wind turbine models. The motivation for the use of SAS is its significantly reduced computational cost with respect to LES, made possible by the use of less dense grids. Results indicate that the two turbulence models yield in general results that are very similar, in terms of rotor-integral quantities and wake behavior. The matching is less satisfactory in very low turbulence inflows. Given that the computational cost is about one order of magnitude smaller, SAS is found to be an interesting alternative to LES for repetitive runs where one can sacrifice a bit of accuracy for a reduced computational burden.