Comparison of wind resource among physical and virtual weather stations for analyzing the economic feasibility of wind farms

Abstract

In this paper is presented a comparison among one physical weather station, called CERTE, and two virtual weather stations, called Merra-2 and Era-5, for analyzing the impact of wind resource of the site in the annual energy production (AEP) as well as in the economic feasibility of wind farms. Physical and virtual weather stations are located in the site La Ventosa, City of Juchitan de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, México. The wind resource data obtained from CERTE, Merra-2 and Era-5 weather stations is analyzed to describe, first, the site wind class and then, to show some relevant statistical parameters for comparisons among weather stations such as the average wind speed profile at different heights, the prevailing wind direction through the wind rose plot, the wind distribution plots and their fits through Weibull functions. The proper wind turbine for the site La Ventosa is selected according to the wind data provided by CERTE due to this weather station is considered as the most accurate and reliable due to its measuring instruments meet the requirements of IEC 61400-1 standard and thus, it has the quality for being considered a good basis of comparisons with other weather stations. The annual energy production (AEP) for each station is obtained through the wind turbine power curve and Weibull parameters, k and c. Finally, an economic analysis is developed to determine if the site is financially viable for the installation of a wind farms.