Online Wind-Atlas Databases and GIS Tool Integration for Wind Resource Assessment: A Spanish Case Study

Agustín Sánchez-del Rey, Isabel Cristina Gil-García, María Socorro García-Cascales and Ángel Molina-García
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Agustín Sánchez-del Rey: Department of Automatics, Electrical Engineering and Electronic Technology, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, 30202 Cartagena, Spain
Isabel Cristina Gil-García: Faculty of Engineering, Distance University of Madrid (UDIMA), 28400 Madrid, Spain
María Socorro García-Cascales: Department of Electronics, Computer Architecture and Projects Engineering, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, 30202 Cartagena, Spain
Ángel Molina-García: Department of Automatics, Electrical Engineering and Electronic Technology, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, 30202 Cartagena, Spain

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-26

Abstract: Renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly integrated into the electricity-generation sector, being eco-friendly solutions, decreasing global warming, and improving the energy transition process. Among the different renewables, wind energy is considered a mature, clean, renewable, and inexhaustible technology as well, becoming one of the main resources in a sustainable framework. Aiming to evaluate the wind resource, scientific contributions have mostly presented a common basis: historical data campaigns of the wind resource mainly considering wind speed—including the module, direction, standard deviation, etc. However, online wind-atlas databases are becoming tools widely used for both wind-resource assessment and optimal wind-power locations. Under this framework, this study analyzed and compared such online wind data sources and their integration with GIS tools for optimal wind-resource-assessment purposes. The proposed methodology identified the corresponding wind-atlas databases directly on their websites and indirectly through the wind data used in relevant contributions about the optimal location of wind sites. Our contribution to the scientific community is thus the review and comparison of these atlas databases for reducing the barrier to access wind data—including GIS-tool-integration analysis. The limitations raised by civil societies, particularly regarding environmental and bird concerns, were not included in this study. Nevertheless, the authors are aware of these concerns and limitations. A Spanish case study was also included in this work, comparing both estimated and collected wind-atlas databases in terms of wind-resource assessment.

Keywords: Geographic Information System (GIS); online database; wind atlas; wind-resource assessment (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: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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