Influence of Surface Complexity and Atmospheric Stability on Wind Shear and Turbulence in a Peri-Urban Wind Energy Site

Wei Zhang, Elliott Walker and Corey D. Markfort ()
Additional contact information
Wei Zhang: National Wind Institute, Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
Elliott Walker: Department of Mathematics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
Corey D. Markfort: IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-22

Abstract: The large-scale deployment of wind energy underscores the critical need for accurate resource characterization to reduce uncertainty in power estimates and to enable the installation of wind farms in increasingly complex terrains. Accurate wind resource assessment in peri-urban and moderately complex terrains remains a significant challenge due to spatial heterogeneity in surface terrain features and atmospheric thermal stability. This study investigates the influence of surface complexity and atmospheric stratification on vertical wind profiles at a utility-scale wind turbine site in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. One year of multi-level wind data from a 106-meter-tall meteorological tower were analyzed to quantify variations in the wind shear exponent α , wind direction veer, and horizontal turbulence intensity (TI) across open-field and complex-surface wind sectors and four thermal stability classes, defined by the bulk Richardson number R i b . The results show that the wind shear exponent α increases systematically with atmospheric stability. Over the open-field terrain, α ranges from 0.11 in unstable conditions to 0.45 in strongly stable conditions, compared to 0.17 and 0.40 over the complex surface. A pronounced diurnal variation in α was observed, particularly during the summer months. Wind veer was greatest and exceeded 30° under strongly stable conditions over open terrain. Elevated TI values peaked at 32 m in height due to flow separation and wake turbulence from nearby vegetation and sloping terrain. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating terrain-induced and thermally driven variability into wind resource assessments to improve power prediction and turbine siting in complex heterogeneous terrain environments.

Keywords: boundary layer meteorology; atmospheric thermal stability; peri-urban environment; wind profiles; wind resource assessment; wind shear exponent (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/19/5211/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/19/5211/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:19:p:5211-:d:1762015

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Cassie Shen

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().