Designing an index for assessing wind energy potential

Matthias Ritter, Zhiwei Shen, Brenda López Cabrera, Martin Odening and Lars Deckert

Renewable Energy, 2015, vol. 83, issue C, 416-424

Abstract: To meet the increasing global demand for renewable energy, such as wind energy, an increasing number of wind parks are being constructed worldwide. Finding a suitable location requires a detailed and often costly analysis of local wind conditions. Plain average wind speed maps cannot provide a precise forecast of wind power because of the non-linear relationship between wind speed and production. We suggest a new approach to assess the local wind energy potential. First, meteorological reanalysis data are applied to obtain long-term low-scale wind speed data at specific turbine locations and hub heights. Second, the relation between wind data and energy production is determined via a five parameter logistic function using actual high-frequency energy production data. The resulting wind energy index allows for a turbine-specific estimation of the expected wind power at an unobserved location. A map of the wind power potential for Germany exemplifies our approach.

Keywords: Wind power; Energy production; Renewable energy; Onshore wind; MERRA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Working Paper: Designing an index for assessing wind energy potential (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:83:y:2015:i:c:p:416-424

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2015.04.038

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