An end-user led approach for assessing the feasibility of small-scale wind energy projects

Abstract

The successful realization of a wind energy project, i.e. a wind farm, wind plant or, in its simplest form, a single wind turbine generator, WTG, strongly depends on accurate assessment of wind energy resources at the target location. While larger wind energy projects include extensive wind resource measurements, this is typically not feasible for small-scale wind applications. This paper presents a simple linear regression model for evaluating wind energy resources at unmonitored sites, based on the correlational analysis of a limited number of sites where wind energy measurements are available. The methodology is illustrated on two regions in Scotland, where wind speed and wind direction measurements are publicly available from 26 UK Met Office stations. The presented approach requires only the coordinates of the end-user's WTG location to estimate the available wind energy and incorporates a method to identify the best-fit WTGs for the calculated wind energy resource. For the selection of WTG, a database of 200 small-scale wind turbines available to UK end-users was constructed, reflecting the current state of the market.