Wind Resource Assessment – A Practical Guide to Developing a Wind Project

Michael C. Brower , PhD, editor and lead author, is Chief Technical Officer of AWS Truepower, LLC, where he leads product development and helps ensure quality and standards across the company. A physicist and prominent expert in wind energy, he has led numerous assessments of utility-scale wind projects around the world. He is also known for his contributions to wind flow modeling and short-term wind forecasting. His coauthors are a team of experts in meteorology, engineering, and modeling who have collectively assessed over 60,000 MW of wind plant capacity.

Preface xv 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Where do Winds Come From? 2 1.2 Key Characteristics of the Wind 4 1.3 Wind Power Plants 6 1.4 Purpose and Organization of this Book 9 1.5 Questions for Discussion 10 PART 1 Wind Monitoring 13 2. Overview of a Wind Resource Assessment Campaign 15 2.1 Site Identification 16 2.2 Resource Monitoring 16 2.3 Wind Resource Analysis 20 3. Siting a Wind Project 23 3.1 Site Selection 23 3.2 Regional Wind Resource Information 25 3.3 Field Surveys 29 3.4 Tower Placement 30 3.5 Permitting for Wind Monitoring 33 3.6 Land Lease Agreements 34 3.7 Questions for Discussion 35 4. Monitoring Station Instrumentation and Measurements 37 4.1 Basic Measurements 37 4.2 Additional Measurements 45 4.3 Recorded Parameters and Sampling Intervals 49 4.4 Data Loggers 50 4.5 Data Storage Devices 51 4.6 Data Transfer Equipment 52 4.7 Power Sources 55 4.8 Towers and Sensor Support Hardware 56 4.9 Wiring 57 4.10 Measurement System Accuracy and Reliability 58 4.11 Questions for Review and Discussion 59 5. Installation of Monitoring Stations 61 5.1 Equipment Procurement 61 5.2 Equipment Acceptance Testing and Field Preparation 62 5.3 Installation Team 64 5.4 Safety 64 5.5 Determination of True North 65 5.6 Tower Installation 66 5.7 Sensor and Equipment Installation 70 5.8 Site Commissioning 80 5.9 Documentation 81 5.10 Cost and Labor Estimates 81 5.11 Questions for Discussion 84 6. Station Operation and Maintenance 87 6.1 Site Visits 88 6.2 Operation and Maintenance Procedures 88 6.3 Documentation 92 6.4 Spare Parts Inventory 93 6.5 Questions for Discussion 93 7. Data Collection and Handling 99 7.1 Raw Data Storage 99 7.2 Data Retrieval 101 7.3 Data Retrieval Frequency 101 7.4 Data Protection and Storage 101 7.5 Documentation 102 7.6 Questions for Discussion 103 8. Ground-Based Remote Sensing Systems 105 8.1 Sodar 106 8.2 Lidar 108 8.3 Remote Sensing Campaign Design and Siting 109 8.4 Data Collection and Processing 110 8.5 Comparisons with Conventional Anemometry 111 8.6 Questions for Discussion 113 PART 2 Data Analysis and Resource Assessment 115 9. Data Validation 117 9.1 Data Conversion 118 9.2 Data Validation 119 9.3 Post-Validation Adjustments 125 9.4 Data Substitution and Averaging 127 9.5 Questions for Discussion 128 10. Characterizing the Observed Wind Resource 130 10.1 Summarizing the Observed Wind Resource 130 10.2 Questions for Discussion 141 11. Estimating the Resource at Hub Height 143 11.1 Wind Speed 143 11.2 Time-Varying Speeds and Speed Distributions 150 11.3 Other Parameters 151 11.4 Questions for Discussion 152 12. The Climate Adjustment Process 155 12.1 Is the Wind Climate Stable? 156 12.2 Requirements for Accurate MCP 159 12.3 Sources of Reference Data 166 12.4 The Target--Reference Relationship 170 12.5 Questions for Discussion 174 13. Wind Flow Modeling 178 13.1 Types of Wind Flow Models 179 13.2 Application of Numerical Wind Flow Models 189 13.3 Questions for Discussion 191 14. Offshore Resource Assessment 195 14.1 Nature of the Offshore Wind Environment 197 14.2 Wind Resource Monitoring Systems 201 14.3 Operations and Maintenance of Offshore Systems 212 14.4 Satellite-Based Microwave Sensors 213 15. Uncertainty in Wind Resource Assessment 220 15.1 Measurement Uncertainty 221 15.2 Historical Wind Resource 221 15.3 Future Wind Resource 223 15.4 Wind Shear 224 15.5 Wind Flow Modeling Uncertainty 225 15.6 Combining Uncertainties 226 15.7 Questions for Discussion 230 16. Plant Design and Energy Production Estimation 233 16.1 Plant Design Software 233 16.2 Setting up the Project 235 16.3 Wind Resource Data 237 16.4 Selecting a Turbine 239 16.5 Designing and Optimizing a Turbine Layout 243 16.6 Gross and Net Energy Production 244 16.7 Special Topics 248 16.8 Questions for Discussion 256 Appendix A. Wind Resource Assessment Equipment Vendors 260 Wind Resource Assessment Equipment 261 Appendix B. Selected Source of GIS Data 263 Sources of GIS Data Related to Wind Resource Assessment 263 Index 265