EgyE 101

Energy Resources Assessment

Wind Energy

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 Wind Energy

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 What Causes Wind?

 Uneven heating of the

earth’s surface
 Daily heating and cooling
cycles
 Earth’s rotation
 Weather systems – track
and intensity
 Position of jet stream
 Local influences – sea
breezes, slope winds,
channeling through
valleys, etc.

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 Wind as an Energy Resource
• High average wind speeds are essential
– 4 m/s annual average is minimum
– People tend to overestimate the wind
– Wind speed tends to increase with height
• Good resource
– Coastal areas
– Crests of long slopes
– Passes
– Open terrain
– Valleys that channel winds
• Typically windier in
– Winter than summer
– Day than night

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Dependence of wind velocity vWi on altitude h

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Roughness lengths of surfaces

From Kalchmeint, 2008

 Establishing Project Viability

Wind resources determine:

 Project Location & Size

 Tower Height

 Turbine Selection & Layout

 Energy Production
» annual, seasonal
» on- & off-peak
» capacity credit
 Cost of Energy/Cash Flow
 Warranty Terms
 Size of Emissions Credits

The wind energy industry is more demanding of wind

speed accuracy than any other industry.
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 Wind distribution function (1)

• The Weibull Distribution Function is a generally accepted

methodology used to estimate the wind speed frequency
distribution.
k -1 k
�k �
�V� �V �
f (V ) = � �� � exp �- �
�c �
�c � �c�
• where
f(V): Weibull probability density function, the probability of
encountering a wind speed of V m/s
c: m/s, Weibull scale factor, typically related to the average
wind speed through the shape factor;
k: Weibull shape factor, which describes the distribution of
the wind speeds.

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Wind distribution function (2)

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Observed vs. Weibull distribution

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 Wind Power Density

• The wind resource at a site can be described by the mean

wind speed, but the wind power density (WPD) provides a
truer indication of a site’s wind energy potential.
• The wind power density, in units of W/m2, is computed by
the following equation:
1 n
WPD = �
2n i =1
 vi
3
( W / m 2
)
where:
vi: instantaneous or short-term average wind speed
: air density
n: the number of records in the averaging interval;

• This equation should only be used for instantaneous (n =

1) or multiple average wind speed values (n>1) and not for
a single long-term average, such as a yearly value.

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 Total Power

• To get the total power per rotor:

= 1/2 x air density x swept rotor area x (wind speed) 3

 A V3

Density = P/(RxT)
P - pressure (Pa) Area =  r2 Instantaneous Speed
R - specific gas constant (287 J/kgK)
T - air temperature (K) (not mean speed)

kg/m3 m2 m/s

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 WIND: Air density

• The air density term can vary by 10% to 15% seasonally.

• Hourly air-density values can be calculated using the following
equation:
P
=
RT
( kg m3 )
where:
P = the air pressure (Pa or N/m2);
R = the specific gas constant for air (287 J/kg.K);
T = the air temperature in degrees Kelvin (°C+273).
• If site pressure is not available, site elevation can be used

�P0 � �g �z�
 =� � exp � �
�RT � �RT �
( kg m 3
)
P0 = standard sea level atmospheric pressure (101,325 Pa), or the
actual sea-level adjusted pressure reading from a local airport;
g = the gravitational constant (9.8 m/s2); and
z = the site elevation above sea level (m)
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 Power of a Wind Turbine

• The power of a wind turbine is

P = ½  v3 A C P

A: swept area of rotor

CP: rotor efficiency

• Example: A 2.5 m diameter turbine

with a 25% efficient rotor in our 8.0
m/s wind will have
P = ½ (1.0 kg/m3)(8.0 m/s)3 [ (2.5
m/2)2](0.25)
= 314 W
 Method of Bins

• There are limitations to this method…

– Wind speed is not constant!
– Rotor efficiency depends on wind speed!
• Small turbines furl in high winds

• Here’s a better method: Method of Bins

– Need to know (or approximate) your wind
distribution
– Power Curve of turbine
 Wind Distribution

• Wind is known to follow a distribution

pattern

• Credit
:
Paul
Gipe
 Power Curve

• The turbine’s manufacturer will provide you

with its power curve

Bergey XL.1
 Method of Bins

• Calculate Energy = Power  Time for each

wind speed bin
• Sum them up!
Method of Bins

• Power
Curve

• Wind
Distribution
(data)

• Annual Energy Output

 Wind Shear and Power Law (1)

• The wind shear is a description of

the change in horizontal wind
speed with height.
• The magnitude of the wind shear is
site-specific and dependent on
wind direction, wind speed, and
atmospheric stability.

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 Wind Shear

• Wind Shear: change in • Typical exponent () values:

horizontal wind speed with
height
• Used in extrapolating wind
speed data from a
meteorological mast that is
shorter than the intended
– .10 - .15: water/beach
– .15 - .25: gently rolling farmland
– .25 - .40+: forests/mountains
v = 7.7 m/s
2

hub height of the turbine z = 80 m

• A function of wind speed,
2

surface roughness (may v = 7.0 m/s 1

vary with wind direction),

and atmospheric stability z = 50 m
(changes from day to night)
1
Wind
Shear
• Wind shear exponents are Profile

higher at low wind speeds,
above rough surfaces, and V = V (z /z ) 
during stable conditions  = Log [v /v ] 10 2 1
2 1 2 1

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Dependence of wind velocity on altitude

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 Wind Shear and Power Law (2)

• By determining the wind shear, one can extrapolate

existing wind speed or wind-power-density data to other
heights (Hellman altitude formula).

U =U ( z z )

0 0

P = P0 ( z z0 )
3

where
U = the unknown wind speed at height z above ground;
U0 = the known speed at a reference height z0;
P = the unknown wind power density at height z above
ground;
P0 = the known wind power density at a reference height
z 0;
α = the power law exponent.

An exponent of 1/7 (or 0.143), which is representative of

well-exposed areas with low surface roughness, is often 23
used to extrapolate data to higher heights.
 Wind energy assessment needs

Understanding of wind energy requires

disparate information:
– Weather data archives for site modeling
– Weather forecasting in all timeframes
– Boundary layer meteorology
– Climate analysis and long-term variability
– Extreme event analysis and temporal change
– GIS, land use data, surface roughness data

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 Initial Site Assessment

• Flagging of vegetation

• Open view to prominent

wind direction

• Hill or ridge perpendicular

to prominent wind direction

• Funneling effects
Importance of “Micro-Siting”
Wind Turbine Size

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 Optimum Wind Power

• Theoretical optimum for utilising the power in the

wind by reducing its velocity (Betz, 1926)
1 1
PBetz =  Av CPBetz =  Av 3 �0.59
3

2 2
• There is also need to consider swirl losses
considering tip speed ratio X:
vtip wR
X= =
vwind v
• So CBetz will go down further to 0.42 for “slow”
wind (farm)mills
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 Wind Measurement

• Wind data for site evaluation must be as

accurate as possible, and for this wind
speed measurements on site are
necessary.

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 • WIND DATA COLLECTION

Why are on-site measurements required?

• Provide an accurate representation of the wind regime of the

site and its viability

• Highlight localised wind flow issues

• Reducing prediction uncertainty

Measurement locations must be representative of

turbine locations:
• Topographically
• Altitude
• Exposure
 • WIND DATA COLLECTION

Duration and density of masts:

• Ideally, a “known point “ within 2km of every prediction

location (depends on size and topography of wind
farm)

• Particularly complex locations should be further

investigated with additional monitoring/modelling

• 12 month minimum campaign

 • WIND DATA COLLECTION

• Prop Vane -
• (measures wind
speed and
• Wind vane
direction)
• (measures wind
• Cup anemometer direction)

• (measures wind speed)

 Measuring Wind

A. Instantaneous
• Plate-anemometers: where the wind pressure
directs a pendulous plate aligned vertically to the
wind direction;
• Dynamic air speed indicators: pitot pressure
(i.e. the pressure at the front stagnation point of
a body flowing against (Pitot-tube);
• Thermal anemometers: temperature of e.g.
heating wires changes as a result of the air
masses flowing past.
B. Mean
Cup anemometers - most widely used measuring
instruments for 10-minute mean values
Impeller anemometers – same principally
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 Measuring Devices and
Parameters

• Anemometer
– Best indication of energy production
– Indicator of turbulence
– Provide information on wind shear
• Wind Vane
– Wind rose
– Siting
• Temp Sensor
– Identify icing events
– Air density
• Barometric Pressure
– Air Density
• Pyranometer
– Effectiveness of hybrid system
A datalogging anemometer and wind vane

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Wind measurement masts

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38
 Wind profiler

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 • WIND DATA COLLECTION

• To achieve an industry best practice 0.5% deficit in

wind speed or less:

• Cylindrical mast:
– For a mast with diameter, d, and
boom with diameter, D:
• r/d > 8.5
• R/D > 12
• R

• Lattice mast
• r
– For a mast with face length, L,
and low porosity:
• r/L > 5.7
• R/D > 12
 • WIND DATA COLLECTION

• Masts
– At least 2/3rds of hub height
– Cup anemometers at 3 or 4 heights (for shear and
turbulence profiles)
– Collect 10 minute average speed, direction, SD, gusts,
temperature, pressure,

• Instruments
– Vector, NRG, Thies, RM Young ...
– Calibrated instruments (MEASNET wind tunnel)
– Mounting adhering to best practice
– Consider a mix of instruments
• WIND DATA COLLECTION
 • WIND DATA COLLECTION

Remote sensing is another option:

• Ground based wind data collection

• LIDAR and SODAR

– Measure up to ~200m height

– Very useful for wind characteristics

(shear, Ti) and for additional known
points in complex flow

– Replacing masts in many applications

– LIDAR data is validated for project

finance use
• WIND DATA COLLECTION

• LASE • transmitted light

R
• local oscillator
• (reference beam)

• scattered and
• DETE received light
CTOR • (with Doppler • TARGET
frequency shift)
• WIND DATA COLLECTION
Wind profiler vs Wind mast measurement

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Predicting Long-Term Wind Conditions From Short-Term
Measurements

Measure - Correlate - Predict Technique

• Measure one year of data on-site using a tall

tower
• Correlate with one or more regional climate
reference stations
– Need high r2
– Reference station must have long-term stability
– Upper-air rawinsonde data may be better than other
sources for correlation purposes
• Predict long-term (7+ yrs) wind characteristics at
project site

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 Predicting Long-Term Wind Conditions From Short-Term
Measurements

25
Airport C Regression Airport B Regression This plot
Project Site 60 m Wind Speed (m/s)

y = 1.7278x + 0.7035 y = 1.4962x + 0.4504 compares

2
2
R = 0.8801 R = 0.875 a site’s
20
hourly data
with three
15
regional
airport
Airport A Regression stations. A
y = 1.0501x + 0.4507 multiple
10 2
R = 0.8763 regression
resulted in
5 Airport A an r2 of
Airport B 0.92.
Airport C
0
0 5 10 15 20
Reference Station Mean Wind Speed (m/s)
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 World Wind Distribution

Distribution of yearly annual mean values of the

wind speed for 10 m above ground worldwide
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 Wind velocity distribution at 50m height

Example of wind velocity distribution at 50 m above

ground in a complex area
Wind Power Classification
Scheme for the Philippines

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Temporal Distribution of wind conditions

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 Wind speeds in different locations

Annual curves of measured wind speeds at different sites

throughout the world
 Wind Life Cycle / Data Needs

Data Requirements depend on the phase

Spans all time horizons:

• Hindcast - archives
• Nowcast - monitoring
• Forecast - modelling

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 Wind Turbine: Siting Considerations

• Minimum allowable wind speed:

4m/s
• Minimum distance from planned
urban areas: 500m
• Minimum distance from villages:
250m
• Minimum distance from
conservation areas: 500m
• Minimum distance from forests:
250m
• Minimum distance from
ecologically sensitive areas: 250
• Not suitable: floodplains and
roads
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Data sources, assumptions and reclassification
decisions for wind power development

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 Data
Data Needs
Needs for
for Wind
Wind Energy
Energy Resource
Resource Assessment
Assessment

• Average wind speed at different heights

• Average wind speed at 30m
• Bodies of Water
• Administration boundaries
• Roads
• Railroads
• Aeronautical (flight charts)
• Protected areas
• Settlement and Population
• Land cover
• Elevation
 Wind Frequency Distribution

Frequency distribution of wind velocity time series for

different sites (left) and a corresponding mathematical
approximation for site B (right)
 Sources of Wind Resource Info

• Existing Data
(surface & upper air)
– usually not where needed
– use limited to general
impressions
– potentially misleading
• Modeling/Mapping
– integrates wind data with
terrain, surface roughness
& other features
• New Measurements
– site specific using towers &
other measurement
systems

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 Modern Wind Maps

Old and new

wind maps
Source: NREL
•

• utilize mesoscale numerical weather models

• high spatial resolution (100-200 m grid = 1.2 – 2.5 hectares)
• simulate land/sea breezes, low level jets, channeling
• give wind speed estimates at multiple heights
• extensively validated
• std error typically 4-7%
• GIS compatible
• reduce development risks
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 Unsuitable areas for wind turbine projects

1. High altitude areas, due to access difficulties and high

investment cost,
2. Highly urbanized/developed areas (cities, urban centres,
road, railway, airport, etc.), due to safety and visibility
reasons
3. Water areas, due to arising costs,
4. Protected areas (forest, national parks, conservation
areas), due to legal constraints,
5. Habitated areas, due to noise and visual impact. These
areas are usually added with the so-called buffer zones
and are dealt with separately.
6. Areas with possibility of electromagnetic interferences,
such as areas near radio or television repeaters.
7. Any other restricted areas such as airports, military zones,
etc.
 • Wind Turbine Impacts on Birds & Bats

• Birds • Bats
• GAO 2005: “In the context • Bats may be a potential
of other sources of avian issue, currently there is an
[mortality], it does not ongoing study at OSU
appear that wind power is looking at the impact of
responsible for a the wind farms on the
significant number of bird bats.
deaths.”
• Technology such as
avian radars are now
being implemented to
“see” and classify the
size of the migrating
birds before they reach
the wind farms.
Converting the constraints into decision rules
 Onshore Wind Energy

EO-based roughness & Digital Contributing to Enhanced Wind

Elevation Model for wind modeling Energy Modeling Results

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Courtesy ARMINES (FR) Courtesy WindLogics (USA)
 GIS Approach to Wind Energy Resource
Assessment
1. Select a reference wind turbine.
2. Create a new GI layer of energy output using
this reference wind turbine and the wind speed
grid layer
3. Overlay with other datasets to remove
unsuitable areas such as cities, water areas,
high-altitude areas and protected areas
– resulting map represents areas that can be used for
wind development
4. Compute technical potential
– Assume land requirement and the minimum level of
wind resource for the reference wind turbine
 Data Requirements for Wind Resource Assessment

• orography, with level lines (isolines) or a

digital terrain model;
• maps of ruggedness based on vegetation
and land-use maps;
• wind speed and wind direction time series
measured at weather stations (1 and 1
year);
• definition and location of obstacles around
weather stations.

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Frequency Distribution of Wind Directions

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Wind Rose Diagrams

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Reference Turbine Machine

• Top: Power
curve of V66-
1650kW wind
turbine
• Bottom:
Detailed
specifications of
Enercon E-66/
1870kW
 Technical Potential Descriptors

• Technical potential (GW)

• Technical power potential (TWh)
• Total land area (Million km2)
• Technical potential/Total land area
(MWh/km2)
 Economic potential

• Levelized Cost (LC) 0 ‘‘dynamic’’ economic

potential is estimated.
– requires a consideration of the distance from the specific
wind farm to the existing transmission line
– investment cost for the transmission line as part of the
total investment cost is quite high.
• Assume that all sites would locate within the
allowable distance from the transmission lines.
• A more exact estimation of the connection cost to
the transmission grid could be carried out if a
digital map of the transmission network is
available.
Map of Levelized Electricity Cost

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Weibull distribution

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Oklahoma Wind Resource Map

• *at 50 meters above ground

 Economic potential of wind energy

Descriptors of Potential
• Production cost
• Useable area (km2)
Installed capacity (GW)
• Number of turbine E-66
(Unit)
• Energy production
(TWh/yr)
• Average hours of full
power (h/yr)
• Total investment cost
(Mill. USD)
 Economic evaluation

1. Evaluation of wind resources;

2. Spatial filtering of the studied region to identify
feasible locations
3. Evaluation of the economic profit from the
Levelized Electricty Cost (PhP/kWh) in all the
feasible locations for the installation of a new
wind farm;
4. i.e. an attribute map containing the
preference/tolerance of the economic group, in
each location, for installation of the new wind
farm with the characteristics (installed power,
types of WTs, etc.) defined by this economic
group.
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Mapping and evaluating visual impacts

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 Tolerance Criteria for Environment

1. Visual Impact
2. Distance to inhabited areas with a given
length limit around these areas (safety
for humans and the noise of WTs at
distances lower than 500 m), with a
preference for distances above the limit
3. environmentally protected areas with
different levels of protection other
environmentally sensitive areas
(especially ecologically sensitive areas);
etc.
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Visual Impacts

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Tolerance Index for Environment

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 Wind Energy Assessment Report: Contents

• Site location
• Wind speed characteristics
– statistics
• The seasonal and diurnal trend of wind speed
– Seasonal
– correspondence with the electricity demand pattern
• Frequency analysis showing the availability of
wind above cutoff speed for fraction of the time
during the entire year at certain height above the
ground surface.
• Wind energy generation considered for machines
of different sizes.
– Find which produces the maximum energy
 References

• Elliott, D., et al. 2001a . “Wind energy

resource atlas of the Philippines.” NREL
/TP-500-26129, National Renewable
Energy Laboratory.