Wind Map Research Articles

Complementarity Maps of Wind and Solar Energy Resources for Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

If two or more renewable energy sources are available in the same region, their complementary can be advantageous in a hybrid power system. Three indices are defined in this work for assessing the complementarity of solar and wind resources for energy production. Based on existing data of solar radiation and wind speed, these complementarity indices were calculated and represented in the form of maps for the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil. The results found suggest that there are some areas of the state where the use of hybrid wind-solar power systems could be more effective than single photovoltaic or wind systems.

Utilities of NeoWins and floating lidar technology for offshore wind development

NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) has developed and published a web based offshore wind map named “NeoWins (NEDO Offshore Wind System)”in which we can browse various beneficial information for offshore wind development such as simulated wind condition, natural and societal environments, and calculation of electric-generating capacity. This paper presents features of NeoWinds and introduces a floating lidar system which is one of the most promising methods for wind measurement as well as its trend in European offshore wind market.

Perceptions of hurricane hazards in the mid‐Atlantic region

ABSTRACTThe mid‐Atlantic region of the United States is susceptible to tropical cyclone hazards. Within the past 15 years this region has experienced Hurricane Isabel in 2003, Hurricane Irene in 2011 and several tropical storms. The region was also impacted by post‐tropical Sandy in 2012. The perception of hurricane hazards among residents of the mid‐Atlantic region has not been directly researched. Furthermore, there is a lack of research on the comprehension of information from hurricane warning graphics that influences hazard perception. This research used a total of eight hypothetical scenarios (four pairs) that varied storm track and storm size to assess risk perception of hurricane hazards and characteristics. Each scenario was represented using a four‐panelled map featuring the National Hurricane Center's cone of uncertainty, a new storm surge map and a new damaging wind map created by the authors. A Qualtrics survey was used to collect responses to questions about concern for personal harm and evacuation intent. Residents of the region perceived falling trees, potential for damaging winds and the size of the storm to be the greatest threats. Scenarios depicting larger storms with track lines that moved inland were seen as more hazardous, resulting in greater concern and evacuation intent. Coastal residents showed greater concern about distance from the track for all scenarios and greater evacuation intent for larger storms compared to inland residents.

Evaluation of Wind Energy Potential as a Power Generation Source in Chad

Long-term wind speed data for thirteen meteorological stations, measured over a five-year period, were statistically analyzed using the two-parameter Weibull distribution function. The purpose of this study is to reveal for the first time the wind power potentials in Chad and to provide a comprehensive wind map of the country. The results show that the values of the shape and scale parameters varied over a wide range. Analysis of the seasonal variations showed that higher wind speed values occur when the weather condition is generally dry and they drop considerably when the weather condition is wet. It was also observed that the wind speed increases as one moves from the southern zone to the Saharan zone. Although the wind power at each site varies significantly, however, the potentials of most of the sites were encouraging. Nevertheless, according to the PNNL classification system, they are favorable for small-scale applications only. A few stations in the middle of Sudanian and Sahel regions are found to be not feasible for wind energy generation due to their poor mean wind speed. The prevailing wind direction for both Saharan and Sahel regions is dominated by northeastern wind, while it diverged to different directions in the Sudanian zone.

Small UAS-Based Wind Feature Identification System Part 1: Integration and Validation.

This paper presents a system for identification of wind features, such as gusts and wind shear. These are of particular interest in the context of energy-efficient navigation of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The proposed system generates real-time wind vector estimates and a novel algorithm to generate wind field predictions. Estimations are based on the integration of an off-the-shelf navigation system and airspeed readings in a so-called direct approach. Wind predictions use atmospheric models to characterize the wind field with different statistical analyses. During the prediction stage, the system is able to incorporate, in a big-data approach, wind measurements from previous flights in order to enhance the approximations. Wind estimates are classified and fitted into a Weibull probability density function. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is utilized to determine the shaping and scale parameters of the distribution, which are employed to determine the most probable wind speed at a certain position. The system uses this information to characterize a wind shear or a discrete gust and also utilizes a Gaussian Process regression to characterize continuous gusts. The knowledge of the wind features is crucial for computing energy-efficient trajectories with low cost and payload. Therefore, the system provides a solution that does not require any additional sensors. The system architecture presents a modular decentralized approach, in which the main parts of the system are separated in modules and the exchange of information is managed by a communication handler to enhance upgradeability and maintainability. Validation is done providing preliminary results of both simulations and Software-In-The-Loop testing. Telemetry data collected from real flights, performed in the Seville Metropolitan Area in Andalusia (Spain), was used for testing. Results show that wind estimation and predictions can be calculated at 1 and a wind map can be updated at 0.4 . Predictions show a convergence time with a 95% confidence interval of approximately 30 .

Application of OSCAT Satellite Data for Offshore Wind Power Potential Assessment of India

Abstract In the present study the summary of offshore wind resources of the India has been provided by analyzing the OSCAT satellite data measured over the period of 2 years (2012-2013). In order to determine the feasibility of wind power development in the region of interest and to calculate the offshore wind potential available therein, the Geographical Information System (GIS) has been used to generate wind maps at turbine hub height of 80 m. The calculation shows that maximum range of annual mean wind speed and wind power density (WPD) are 9.7-13.4 m/s and 1048.7-1632.5W/m 2 respectively, followed by estimation of generated power using a wind turbine of 2.1 MW rated capacity. The total area of interest was further divided into zones having different wind classes and foundation technology. Nearly 74% of the area within the region of interest was found to be of class 1. The average annual output power including and excluding conflict areas were found to be approximately 2897.7 GW and 1738.6 GW respectively. Considering area available to matured foundation technology for offshore wind development, India is capable of generating at least 1.6 times of the electricity requirement for FY 2015-16.

Using albedo to reform wind erosion modelling, mapping and monitoring

Wind erosion and dust emission models are used to assess the impacts of dust on radiative forcing in the atmosphere, cloud formation, nutrient fertilisation and human health. The models are underpinned by a two-dimensional geometric property (lateral cover; L) used to characterise the three-dimensional aerodynamic roughness (sheltered area or wakes) of the Earth’s surface and calibrate the momentum it extracts from the wind. We reveal a fundamental weakness in L and demonstrate that values are an order of magnitude too small and significant aerodynamic interactions between roughness elements and their sheltered areas have been omitted, particularly under sparse surface roughness. We describe a solution which develops published work to establish a relation between sheltered area and the proportion of shadow over a given area; the inverse of direct beam directional hemispherical reflectance (black sky albedo; BSA). We show direct relations between shadow and wind tunnel measurements and thereby provide direct calibrations of key aerodynamic properties. Estimation of the aerodynamic parameters from albedo enables wind erosion assessments over areas, across platforms from the field to airborne and readily available satellite data. Our new approach demonstrated redundancy in existing wind erosion models and thereby reduced model complexity and improved fidelity. We found that the use of albedo enabled an adequate description of aerodynamic sheltering to characterise fluid dynamics and predict sediment transport without the use of a drag partition scheme (Rt) or threshold friction velocity (u∗t). We applied the calibrations to produce global maps of aerodynamic properties which showed very similar spatial patterns to each other and confirmed the redundancy in the traditional parameters of wind erosion modelling. We evaluated temporal patterns of predicted horizontal mass flux at locations across Australia which revealed variation between land cover types that would not be detected using traditional models. Our new approach provided new opportunities to investigate the dynamics of wind erosion in space and time and elucidate aeolian processes across scales.

A new method for estimating maximum wind gust speed with a given return period and a high areal resolution

We propose a new method for estimating maps of extreme wind gust speed. This method uses observed wind data and maps of general wind climate (GWC). The GWC consists of parameter values for the Weibull distribution of the observed wind speeds in 8 wind sectors and the wind frequencies of these sectors. The proposed method assumes that the maximum annual wind gust speeds have a Gumbel distribution. It consists of two steps. In the first step, the parameters of the Gumbel distribution are estimated using observations at single stations. In the second step, a relationship between the Gumbel parameters and the GWC is derived and applied to maps of the GWC. The GWC permits areal estimates of extreme wind speeds with high horizontal resolution. The resolution is dependent on the resolution of the GWC. A map of the maximum wind gust speeds, for a return period of 50 years, was calculated for the Czech Republic with a horizontal resolution of 100m using the proposed method and its error was estimated. The results showed that only mean wind speeds and sector frequencies from the GWC are the important parameters for the target area.

국가바람지도와 상용 단지설계 프로그램을 활용한 국내 해상풍력단지 공급가능 잠재량 산정

국가바람지도와 상용 단지설계 프로그램을 활용한 국내 해상풍력단지 공급가능 잠재량 산정

Wind energy evaluation for a highly complex terrain using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling is becoming an important tool in the wind industry to study wind flow patterns. Accurate CFD simulations of wind flow are essential for the selection of wind farm locations as well as the design of appropriate wind turbines. This article validates the average wind power estimated by the state of the art CFD tool WindSim using on-site measurements from nine meteorological stations scattered around a highly complex terrain at several heights. It is known that the numerical solver is very sensitive to the wide number of computational parameters that have to be taken into consideration by the user. This paper investigates those computational parameters in details including a grid dependency test, the order of the discretization schemes, the turbulence models (Standard k-ε, k-ε with Yap corrections, RNG k-ε and Modified k-ε) and the iterative convergence criteria. The best model is employed to investigate major hot spots identified where wind farming is feasible in Mauritius with due consideration to land use and topographical requirements. Wind maps are produced at four levels which are of typical hub heights of commercial wind turbines. These maps can be used to assist in the decision-making process when locating best placements for wind farming.

Prediction of local wind climatology from Met Office models: Virtual Met Mast techniques

AbstractThe Met Office has developed the Virtual Met Mast™ (VMM) tool for assessing the feasibility of potential wind farm sites. It provides site‐specific climatological wind information for both onshore and offshore locations. The VMM relies on existing data from past forecasts from regional‐scale numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, to which corrections are applied to account for local site complexity. The techniques include corrections to account for the enhanced roughness lengths used in NWP models to represent drag due to sub‐grid orography and downscaling methods that predict local wind acceleration over small‐scale terrain. The corrected NWP data are extended to cover long periods (decades) using a technique in which the data are related to alternative long‐term datasets. For locations in the UK, the VMM currently relies on operational mesoscale model forecast data at 4 km horizontal resolution. Predictions have been verified against observations made at typical wind turbine hub heights at over 80 sites across the UK. In general, the predictions compare well with the observations. The techniques provide an efficient method for screening potential wind resource sites. Examples of how the VMM techniques can be used to produce local wind maps are also presented. © 2016 Crown copyright. Wind Energy © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Extrapolating Satellite Winds to Turbine Operating Heights

AbstractOcean wind retrievals from satellite sensors are typically performed for the standard level of 10 m. This restricts their full exploitation for wind energy planning, which requires wind information at much higher levels where wind turbines operate. A new method is presented for the vertical extrapolation of satellite-based wind maps. Winds near the sea surface are obtained from satellite data and used together with an adaptation of the Monin–Obukhov similarity theory to estimate the wind speed at higher levels. The thermal stratification of the atmosphere is taken into account through a long-term stability correction that is based on numerical weather prediction (NWP) model outputs. The effect of the long-term stability correction on the wind profile is significant. The method is applied to Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar scenes acquired over the south Baltic Sea. This leads to maps of the long-term stability correction and wind speed at a height of 100 m with a spatial resolution of 0.02°. Calculations of the corresponding wind power density and Weibull parameters are shown. Comparisons with mast observations reveal that NWP model outputs can correct successfully for long-term stability effects and also, to some extent, for the limited number of satellite samples. The satellite-based and NWP-simulated wind profiles are almost equally accurate with respect to those from the mast. However, the satellite-based maps have a higher spatial resolution, which is particularly important in nearshore areas where most offshore wind farms are built.

Synoptic backgrounds of the widest wildfire in Mazandaran Province of Iran during December 11–13, 2010

In this paper, atmospheric origins of the widest wildfire in Mazandaran province on 11–13th of December, 2010 have been investigated. Data sets of this research include maximum daily temperature (MDT), minimum relative humidity (MRH) of terrestrial stations, dynamic and thermodynamic features of the atmosphere, Gridded data sets of Self-Calibrated Palmer drought severity index (SCPDSI) and global drought dataset standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and data related to the time and the extent of the wildfire. The ‘‘environmental to circulation’’ approach to synoptic classification has been used to investigate relationships between local-scale surface environment (wildfire) and the synoptic-scale atmospheric circulation conditions. Results of study show that during the 3-day wide wildfire, the average of MDT and the MRH was significantly different from the long-term average. During the aforementioned wildfire, the average of MDT in Mazandaran province was 26 °C and the average of MRH was reported 35 %. The long-term average of MDT and the MRH in Mazandaran province during 3 days of wildfire was 12.3 °C and 68 %, respectively. Therefore, the MDT has a positive abnormality of 13.7 °C and the MRH has a negative abnormality of 33 %. In addition, monthly SCPDSI and SPEI indicated severe drought conditions at December 2010 in Mazandaran. Analysis of SLP maps shows that during the 3-day fire, a pressure center of 1110 hPa on Persian Gulf and a very low-pressure center on Turkey and Asia Minor were created. Normally, this event has caused the pressure gradient and warm and dry air advection from Arabian Peninsula to higher longitudes, particularly Mazandaran province. Consequently, the MDT increased and the wildfire of Mazandaran forest took place in an area of 220 ha. Zonal wind maps signify the weakness of Zonal wind and meridional wind maps show the southern direction of meridional wind flow during the wide wildfire. Moreover, Omega maps prove that during the aforementioned wildfire, the Omega flow has been positive and the warm air flow has subsidence. This made the infusion of warm air and increased the MDT substantially and consequently the wildfire occurrence was facilitated. Temperature advection maps showed that in the level of 1000 hPa, the warm air blowing source is originated from Arabian Peninsula, in the level of 850 hPa from the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq and in the level of 700 and 500 hPa from Ethiopia, Arabian Peninsula and Iraq. The Hybrid-Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model outputs confirm the synoptic mechanisms for the discussed wildfire.

Wind resource assessment in Algeria

In this work the Algerian wind resource assessment is made using statistical analysis based on the measured wind speed data in the last decade from 63 meteorological stations distributed over the Algerian territory and 24 in neighboring countries close boundaries. Weibull distribution is used to study the monthly, seasonal and annual wind power potential over the country. Technical and economic evaluations of electricity generation from different commercial wind turbines, ranging between 200kW and 2MW are examined for four selected locations in Algeria for their greatest wind potential. The results led to the actualization of the wind map in Algeria which gave an enhancement of wind energy potential in the eastern region of the Sahara, the occidental Highlands region, three coastal regions open to the Mediterranean Sea and the extreme south of the country, while it has been downgraded in two regions situated in the north. The temporal study gives spring as the windiest period over the largest part of the country. The energy cost analyses show that the four windiest sites have good economic potential where the minimum cost per kWh is about 2.8c$/kWh, assessed at the site of Hassi R’mel using the Gamesa G80/2000 wind turbine of 2MW rated capacity, which generates the highest annual energy of 5.46GWh with a capacity factor of 0.31.

Typhoon Wind Hazard Estimation and Mapping for Coastal Region in Mainland China

AbstractEight or nine tropical cyclones (TC) per year make landfall over mainland China and cause large typhoon wind speeds and economic loss. This study estimates the return period value of the annual maximum typhoon wind speed, vT, for a set of grid points in the coastal region of mainland China. vT can be used to characterize the typhoon’s wind hazard and to assign the wind load in design codes. The estimation uses a typhoon wind hazard model consisting of the TC track and wind field models. For the estimation, the development of track model for a circular subregion centered at each of the grid points is carried out by using the best-track dataset from China Meteorological Administration, and a well-accepted wind field model for simulating the TC is adopted. The spatial trends of the parameters controlling the track model are investigated, and the time histories of the wind speeds estimated by using the adopted wind field model are compared with those observed from two historical typhoon events. The es...

Comparison and assessment of three wave hindcasts in the North Atlantic Ocean

ABSTRACTThis paper compares and evaluates three wave hindcasts in the North Atlantic Ocean: ERA-Interim, NOAA/CFSR and HIPOCAS. The assessment was performed using satellite data from the GlobWave Project. It concerns the second part of a research project that aims to characterize differences among reanalyses and to calculate wind and wave error maps using satellites. The first step of this study inter-compares the hindcasts within a spatial-temporal approach. Besides, the analysis was also divided into overall conditions and extreme events. The second step evaluates each hindcast independently using satellite data. In order to compare and evaluate the three datasets, coincident periods and grid domain were determined, which corresponds to the interval between 1979 and 2001, latitudes between 15° and 72° North and longitudes between 66° West and 7° East. Results for the overall non-extreme conditions indicate that the three wave hindcasts are very similar and have small errors (less than 0.5 metres); NOAA/CFSR (based on the WAVEWATCH III model) presents the largest waves, followed by HIPOCAS and ERA-Interim (both based on the WAM model). NOAA/CFSR and especially HIPOCAS at European waters tend to overestimate the measurements while ERA-Interim tends to underestimate. For extreme events, the differences increase significantly (up to 2.5 meters) and HIPOCAS presented the highest waves, followed by NOAA/CFSR and ERA-Interim (severely underestimated). A simple joint wind and wave analysis concluded that WAVEWATCH III presented the best modelling in terms of bias but was over-performed by WAM used in the ERA-Interim project regarding the root mean square error and scatter index.

Temperature and Wind Climate of the Antarctic Peninsula as Simulated by a High-Resolution Regional Atmospheric Climate Model

Abstract The latest polar version of the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO2.3) has been applied to the Antarctic Peninsula (AP). In this study, the authors present results of a climate run at 5.5 km for the period 1979–2013, in which RACMO2.3 is forced by ERA-Interim atmospheric and ocean surface fields, using an updated AP surface topography. The model results are evaluated with near-surface temperature and wind measurements from 12 manned and automatic weather stations and vertical profiles from balloon soundings made at three stations. The seasonal cycle of near-surface temperature and wind is simulated well, with most biases still related to the limited model resolution. High-resolution climate maps of temperature and wind showing that the AP climate exhibits large spatial variability are discussed. Over the steep and high mountains of the northern AP, large west-to-east climate gradients exist, while over the gentle southern AP mountains the near-surface climate is dominated by katabatic winds. Over the flat ice shelves, where katabatic wind forcing is weak, interannual variability in temperature is largest. Finally, decadal trends of temperature and wind are presented, and it is shown that recently there has been distinct warming over the northwestern AP and cooling over the rest of the AP, related to changes in sea ice cover.

Shallow landslide susceptibility mapping using high-resolution topography for areas devastated by super typhoon Haiyan

Super typhoon Haiyan, considered as one of the most powerful storms recorded in 2013, devastated the central Philippines region on 8 November 2013 with damage amounting to more than USD 2 billion. Hardest hit is the province of Leyte which is located in central Philippines. Rehabilitation of the areas that were devastated requires detailed hazard maps as a basis for well-planned reconstruction. Along with severe wind, storm surge, and flood hazard maps, detailed landslide susceptibility maps for the cities and municipalities of Leyte (7246.7 km2) province are necessary. In order to rapidly assess and delineate areas susceptible to rainfall-induced shallow landslides, Stability INdex MAPping (SINMAP) software was used over a 5-m Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR)-derived digital terrain model (DTM) grid. Topographic, soil strength, and hydrologic parameters were used for each pixel of a given DTM grid to compute for the corresponding factor of safety. The landslide maps generated using SINMAP are highly consistent with the landslide inventory derived from high-resolution satellite imagery from 2002 to 2014 with a detection percentage of 97.5 % and missing factor of 0.025. These demonstrate that SINMAP performs well despite the lack of an extensive geotechnical and hydrological database in the study area. The detailed landslide susceptibility classification is useful to identify safe and unsafe areas for reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. These maps complement the debris flow and structurally controlled landslide hazard maps that are also being prepared for rebuilding Haiyan’s devastated areas.

Estimation of Hydrogen Production Using Wind Energy in Algeria

In response to problems involved in the current crisis of petrol in Algeria, with the decrease in the price of the oil barrel, the rate of growth in domestic electricity demand and with an associated acceleration of global warming, as a result of significantly increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, renewable energy seems today as a clean and strategic substitution for the next decades. However, the greatest obstacles which face electric energy comes from renewable energy systems are often referred to the intermittency of these sources as well as storage and transport problems, the need for their conversion into a versatile energy carrier in its use, storable, transportable and environmentally acceptable are required. Among all the candidates answering these criteria, hydrogen presents the best answer. In the present work, particular attention is paid to the production of hydrogen from wind energy. The new wind map of Algeria shows that the highest potential wind power was found in Adrar, Hassi-R’Mel and Tindouf regions. The data obtained from these locations have been analyzed using Weibull probability distribution function. The wind energy produced in these locations is exploited for hydrogen production through water electrolysis. The objective of this paper is to realize a technological platform allowing the evaluation of emergent technologies of hydrogen production from wind energy using four wind energy conversion systems of 600, 1250, 1500 and 2000kW rated capacity. The feasibility study shows that using wind energy in the selected sites is a promising solution. It is shown that the turbine “De Wind D7” is sufficient to supply the electricity and hydrogen with a least cost and a height capacity factor. The minimum cost of hydrogen production of 1.214 $/kgH2 is obtained in Adrar.

Using Satellite SAR to Characterize the Wind Flow around Offshore Wind Farms

Offshore wind farm cluster effects between neighboring wind farms increase rapidly with the large-scale deployment of offshore wind turbines. The wind farm wakes observed from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) are sometimes visible and atmospheric and wake models are here shown to convincingly reproduce the observed very long wind farm wakes. The present study mainly focuses on wind farm wake climatology based on Envisat ASAR. The available SAR data archive covering the large offshore wind farms at Horns Rev has been used for geo-located wind farm wake studies. However, the results are difficult to interpret due to mainly three issues: the limited number of samples per wind directional sector, the coastal wind speed gradient, and oceanic bathymetry effects in the SAR retrievals. A new methodology is developed and presented. This method overcomes effectively the first issue and in most cases, but not always, the second. In the new method all wind field maps are rotated such that the wind is always coming from the same relative direction. By applying the new method to the SAR wind maps, mesoscale and microscale model wake aggregated wind-fields results are compared. The SAR-based findings strongly support the model results at Horns Rev 1.