Evaluation of wind resource using numerically optimized data in the southwestern Korean Peninsula

Abstract

The wind distribution over the Korean Peninsula was analyzed using numerically optimized wind data to reduce the uncertainties in estimating the wind resources. The simulated data were validated by a comparison with surface wind observations and three statistical indexes. According to the simulated surface winds, mesoscale circulation, such as land-sea breeze and mountain-valley winds affect the wind characteristics of the hub height at coastal and inland regions. However, the prevailing winds are strongly associated with the synoptic forcing at the island and mountainous regions, not the regional circulation. On the other hand, the atmospheric stability definitely affects the strength of the daytime and nocturnal wind speed at a hub height. Overall, there was a significant difference between the numerical and logarithmic method to estimate the wind energy at hub height. Moreover, the discrepancy in the wind density estimated using the two methods becomes clear over inland and mountainous areas.