Abstract
Wind energy is characterized by exceptionally large power fluctuations at the single energy facility level, that remain significant also considering the average of the many different energy facilities connected to the same grid. A high-frequency statistic, 1 min or less sampling time, is needed to understand this variability and design the energy storage facilities needed to replace the combustion fuel power plants now used to stabilize a grid. While high-frequency data are unavailable for the United States, low-frequency data, collected monthly, allow assessing the month-to-month and year-to-year variability, and define a low-frequency variability “performance”. The manuscript analyzes the output of the onshore wind energy facilities of capacity more than 250 MW in the continental contiguous United States. The differences between wind energy facilities within the same macro-region, also in about the same location, are shown, for both the annual average capacity factor and the low-frequency variability parameters. Wind energy facilities with larger annual average capacity factors have reduced variability parameters, both seasonal and inter-annual, thus performing better. The facilities with a larger annual average capacity factor also feature smaller variations in between their monthly and annual outputs.
Highlights
Information about the contribution of wind energy to the “global energy mix” may be found in [1,2,3,4].The renewable energy contribution to the global energy mix is growing steadily
The variability of wind energy production is obviously in a large part explained by the variability of the wind energy resource, as it may be inferred when applying simple models
The aim of this paper was to show through a few cases studies the seasonal and inter-annual variability in electricity production between the largest, more recent, wind energy facility (WEF) across the United States (US)
Summary
Information about the contribution of wind energy to the “global energy mix” may be found in [1,2,3,4].The renewable energy contribution to the global energy mix is growing steadily. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) [1], the 2016 World Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) by source was 31.9% oil, 27.1% coal (counting pet and oil shale), 22.1% natural gas, 9.8% waste and biofuels, 4.9% nuclear, 2.5% hydroelectric, and 1.7% all the others, including wind, geothermal, solar, tide, wave, and ocean. As per the IEA [1], the 2016 electricity generation by source was 38.4% coal, 23.2% natural gas, 16.3% hydroelectric, 10.4% nuclear, 3.7% oil, and 8% non-hydro renewable energy and waste, including wind, geothermal, solar, tide, wave, and ocean, and biofuels and waste. Wind energy is providing significant contributions to electricity generation in many countries, the same as solar photovoltaics. Within the United States (US), in 2017 wind energy contributed to 6.3% of the total US utility-scale electricity generation, with a dramatic growth from the 6 billion kWh of the year 2000 to about 254 billion kWh of the year 2017 [2,3]
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