Potential of Offshore Wind Energy and Extreme Wind Speed Forecasting on the West Coast of Taiwan

Pei-Chi Chang,Ray-Yeng Yang,Chi-Ming Lai

doi:10.3390/en8031685

Abstract

It is of great importance and urgency for Taiwan to develop offshore wind power. However, relevant data on offshore wind energy resources are limited. This study imported wind speeds measured by a tidal station and a buoy into the software WAsP to estimate the high-altitude wind speeds in the two areas. A light detection and ranging (Lidar) system was set up near the tidal station and buoy. High-altitude wind speeds measured by the Lidar system were compared with the WAsP-estimated values, and it was discovered that the two data sets were consistent. Then, long-term wind speed data observed by buoys and tidal stations at various locations were imported into WAsP to forecast wind speeds at heights of 55–200 m on the west coast of Taiwan. The software WAsP Engineering was used to analyze the extreme wind speeds in the same areas. The results show that wind speeds at 100 m are approximately 9.32–11.24 m/s, which means that the coastal areas of west Taiwan are rich in wind energy resources. When a long-term 10-min average wind speed is used, the extreme wind speed on the west coast is estimated to be between 36.4 and 55.3 m/s.

Highlights

IntroductionThe Taiwan government expects that by 2025, renewable energy will constitute 15.1% of the country’s total power generation capacity
R-squared values from the regression analysis for Miaoli and Tainan are in the range of 0.8–0.9 and 0.9–1, respectively, which demonstrates that low-altitude wind speed field data can be processed by Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program (WAsP) to obtain a fairly reliable forecast for high-altitude wind speeds
This study first imported wind speed data measured by a tidal station and a buoy into the WAsP simulation software to estimate the high altitude wind speeds for the two areas

Summary

Introduction

The Taiwan government expects that by 2025, renewable energy will constitute 15.1% of the country’s total power generation capacity. According to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard [1], before establishing an offshore wind farm, at least one year of marine meteorological observation data is required to accurately understand the site’s wind energy potential. These data are used to estimate the wind farm’s setup cost and power generating capacity, etc. In Taiwan, wind speed data come primarily from meteorological stations of the Central Weather Bureau, whose near-shore terrestrial stations are all below 10 m; as a result, so far there has been no offshore wind speed observation

Methods

Results

Conclusion