Evaluation of Wind Energy Resources and Wind

Power Generation Based on SAR-Retrieved Wind in

the Eastern Sea Area of Yancheng, Jiangsu, China

Jie Jiang', Yongxue Liu", Saishuai Zhao', Minxi Zhou', Wangyu Cheng', Manchun Li'
'Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
*Corresponding author, e-mail: yongxue@nju.edu.cn

Abstract-Evaluation of wind energy resources and wind power
generation can provide decision basis for wind energy construction.
Based on the study area in the eastern sea area of Yancheng, 8
scenes of ERS-2 SAR images in 2007 are collected to retrieve wind
field and the retrieval results are verified by QuikSCAT wind data.
Then, average wind power density is figured out to evaluate wind
energy resources and unit capacity of wind power generator is
calculated to evaluate wind power generation. The results show
that: (1) it is feasible and accurate to retrieve wind speed based on
CMOD5 model; (2) regional variations of wind energy resources
and wind energy storage in different seasons should be taken into
account; (3) average wind power density is from 1.22 to
929.51 Wlm2, and wind energy resources are abundant in three
areas, the unit capacity of which could reach to 442.84, 1181.02
and 1491.31 kW.
Keywords-ERS-2 SAR images; wind field retrieval; wind energy
resources evaluation; wind power generation evaluation
I. INTRODUCTION
With the exhaustion of fossil energy resources and
seriousness of environmental and climatic issues, clean and
renewable energy has become energy developmental focus of
countries around the world [1]. As a kind of clean and
renewable energy, wind energy has been paid more and more
attention globally. Due to the smaller surface roughness,
offshore wind energy resources are more abundant (about 3-4
times) than land wind energy resources, so it has greater
potential to develop offshore wind energy resources [2].
Evaluation of wind energy resources and wind power
generation is the precondition for reasonable exploitation and
utilization of offshore wind energy resources, the key of which
[5]. As a result, SAR images with a wide range of real-time and
dynamic ocean surface information have a unique advantage in
offshore wind field retrieval [6]. A number of published studies
have addressed the wind field retrieval methods and proved the
feasibility of SAR-retrieved wind [5, 7-lO]. However, wind
energy resources and wind power generation have not been
further evaluated upon wind speed retrieved from SAR images.
Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to combine wind
field retrieval with evaluation of wind energy resources and
wind power generation. Firstly, wind field data is derived from
multi-temporal SAR images. Secondly, wind energy resources
and wind power generation are evaluated to provide decision­
making basis for the construction of offshore wind power
generation.
The structure of the paper is as follows: Section 2
introduces the study area and dataset. Section 3 describes wind
retrieval, wind speed verification and wind energy evaluation
methods. Section 4 analyses wind retrieval, wind speed
verification and evaluation results. Section 5 concludes the
paper.
II. STUDY AREA AND MATERIALS
A. Study Area
120"E 121°E
N
's'l A �
{;':<-
"'..
)�",clle"g

is to obtain reliable wind direction data, wind speed data, and <f'
'9
temporal variation of wind field data.
�
The offshore wind field retrieval method has matured ,/C
�
recently based on the information sources of remote sensing
images and techniques of image processing and information
extraction [3]. Compared with ship data, island station data and
offshore buoy data, remote sensing images can provide
offshore wind field data with long time series and large areas.
So remote sensing images have played a more and more
significant role in the observation and research of offshore
wind filed [4]. Among them, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR),
not affected by weather and imaging time, can offer all­ Figure I. The location map
weather, all-time and high-resolution imaging of ocean surface

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO.

41171325 and JII03408) and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents
in University (NCET-12-0264)
 Considering the abundance of wind energy resources and
construction costs, the study area located in the eastern sea area
of Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, China was selected. The
latitude range is from 32°53'N to 33°4'N and the longitude
range is from 120053'E to 121°4'E. Climate of this area transits
from warm temperate monsoon climate to northern subtropical
monsoon climate. The study area also belongs to China's
eastern coastal regions with advanced economy and large
population. Therefore, the evaluation of wind energy resources
and wind power generation is beneficial to electrical energy
supply for urban construction and economic development.
B. Dataset
The datasets used in this study can be organized into the
following two categories:
(1) ERS-2 SAR images. ERS-2 satellite carrying synthetic
aperture radar, wind scatterometer and some other payloads
was launched by Europe Space Agency (ESA) in 1995.
Moreover, the spatial resolution of ERS-2 SAR images is 30m,
the pixel size is 12.5mx 12.5m and the pixel depth is 16 bit. In
this study, 8 scenes of ERS-2 SAR images (2007-01-07, 2007-
02-11, 2007-04-22, 2007-05-11, 2007-08-05, 2007-09-09,
2007-10-14, 2007-12-23) are used to retrieve wind direction
and wind speed.
(2) QuikSCAT data. QuikSCAT satellite is a marine
scientific satellite launched by National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) in June, 1999, the SeaWinds detector
of which can obtain wind direction and wind speed 10m height
above the sea surface [11]. Obtained wind field data have
25km spatial resolution and could cover more than 90% of the
world's ocean [12]. In order to verify retrieved wind speed, 8
scenes of QuikSCAT wind data were collected on the same day
as the ERS-2 SAR images.
III. METHODS

: :
,---------------- ,---------------- ,-----------------' ,----------------- ,-----------------
Evaluation of wind Evaluation of wind :
RS.2 SA�
Preprocessing Wind retrieval Wind speed verification
,
i ;---Relrieved� ,
,
power generation

D Images I

:
! �nd speed

1
/ ,
I
,
,
I
Power exponent
calculation of
wind energy
profile
i G;;�o� ] I
I
I

:: L .
lion

:I
, . Wind power
Wind speed
� . :
density at
covered the :V indpowcr 70m
: whole sludy density al
:--.; :--.; � _:"':":':':'_..J
area 10m , •
,
, Unit capacity
,
. , calculation of
,
I
Verification wind power
according to ,
QuikSCA T wind I
I
dam I
I
,
I
I
energy I
resources :
----------______ 1

Figure 2. Technology framework of the study

A. Preprocessing terrain changes result in surface area changes of

backscattering section; (2) terrain changes result in local
Data preprocessing mainly involves ERS-2 SAR images,
incidence angle changes [14]. Consequently, in this study we
including data filtering, radiometric calibration, and terrain
used Range-Doppler algorithm to correct terrain by the 90m
correction.
spatial-resolution SRTM DEM data downloaded from Europe
Radar images record amplitude information and phase Space Agency website. Range-Doppler algorithm principle is
information of backscattering resulted from interaction shown in equation (2):
between radar waves and surface features. For comparing
o 0 sin ()DEM
SAR images of different times, patterns, and sensors,
(JRange-Doppler = (JEllipsoid
SIll ()Ellipsoid
•

radiometric calibration is needed to transform original

amplitude information to backscattering coefficient. The (2)
formula is as follows [13]:
where (lRange-Doppler is backscattering coefficient afer terrain
(70 1- K + 10 ]ogIO[( R�) �
s n an GSYSO 1 (1)
O
correction, a EII,pso,d is backscattering coefficient before terrain
correction, 8DEM is local incidence angle, 8E1lipSOid is nominal
=
� smao
Gs s
y incidence angle.
where 1=1 Olog/O(DN/), DNij is the intensity of pixel (i, j),
K is the radiometric calibration constant, Rn is the slant
B. Wind Retrieval
distance of pixel (i, j), Ro is the referable slant distance, Gsys is Since evaluation of wind energy resources and wind power
the system gain of calibrated SAR image, GsysO is the system generation is based on retrieved wind speed, which builds on
gain of determined K. known wind direction, we should fIrstly retrieve wind
direction. There are wind stripes (I-8km interval) parallel to
Terrain differences also have a significant impact on marine wind directions in SAR images and these stripes are
backscattering coefficient, which specifically shows that: (1) caused by instabilities of marine atmospheric boundary layers
[S]. So in this study we calculated low-frequency band to which are also 10m height above the sea surface, to verify
retrieve wind direction by the following equation [10]: retrieved wind speeds. As wind speed retrieval results are
N N
discrete point data, spatial interpolation should be conducted
Y. '"' '"' . e-2:r1(jI+km)IN to get wind speeds covering the whole study area. In this
I,m �� X),k
=

j�l k�l study, we chose inverse distance weighting (mW)

(3)
where Y is the low-frequency band of SAR image, X is the
gray value of SAR image, I, m =1,2, . . . . . . ,N.
Retrieved wind direction above still exists 1 80 ° wind
direction confusion. Hence we took QuikSCAT wind data on
the same day into consideration to determine the final
direction.
Wind speed retrieval method originated in the C-band
scatterometer model, which is a geophysical model describing
the relationship between wind speed 10m height above the sea
surface and backscattering coefficient on the moderately stable
atmospheric conditions [IS]. Among these scatterometer
models, CMOD4, CMOD-IFR2 and CMODS models are more
successful [8]. We chose CMODS model to retrieve wind
speed and its basic form can be expressed as:
aO =Bo(1+B, COS¢+B2 COS2¢)'6
(4)
where (l is the backscattering coefficient, cP is the angel
between instrumental azimuth and wind direction, Bo, BJ and
B2 are functions between wind speed V and incidence angle 8.
If x=(8 -40)/2S, then
interpolation to interpolate wind speed by the following
formula [16]:
where Zo is the estimated value of point 0, Zi is the value of
control point i, dl is the distance between point 0 and control
point i, n is the number of control points, k is the specified
power.
Therefore, retrieved wind speeds are fustly conducted
mw spatial interpolatin and then verified by QuikSCAT wind
data on the same day.
D. Evaluation of Wind Energy Resources
Wind power density defmed as wind power per area
perpendicular to wind direction was used in this study to
evaluate wind energy resources. Moreover, wind power
density is an important parameter to measure aplenty and
potential of wind energy resources in a region. The formula of
average wind power density during a specific timeframe is as
follows [17]:
1 n
L
1=1 P
v,'
_

Dwp =-

Bo=1 0ao+a,v /(a2v,soY 2n

(S) (11)

/(s,so) =
{ (so)a g(so)
where Dwp is the average wind power density, n is the
record number during a specific timeframe, VI is the wind
speed of record i, P is the air density and it can be defined as
g(s)
(6) equation 12 [17].

where g(s)=1 1( 1 +exp(-s)), a=so( 1 -g(so)), So=CJrCJ3X, P

2 2 3
Y=C9+CJl;X+CIlX , aO=cJ+c2X+C3X +c+x , aJ=c5+C!iX, a2=c7+cs,X. P= RT
(12)
and
where P is the average atmospheric pressure, R is a
_ CI4(1+X)-CI6V(0.S + x-tanh[4(x+Cl6 +c17v)]) constant (2871 kg-I. KI), T is the annual average degree kelvin
BI- -

1+ exp(0.34(v- CI8 )) (KO).

(7)
E. Evaluation of Wind Power Generation
B2 = (-d, +d,vJ exp(-v2 ) The retrieved wind speed is 10m height above the sea
(8) surface while the height of wind turbine hub is mostly 60-70m
above the sea surface. In consequence, wind power density at
n
{:+b(Y_I) Y<Yo 70m should be calculated before wind power generation
v2 =
evaluation. Generally, average wind speed and average wind
Y;:::Yo
power density satisfy the following two equations [18]:
(9)
- -z
where y=(v+vo)/vo'10=cJ9, n=C20, a=Yo- (yo- l)/n, b=lI[n(yo- vn=vo( nt
2 zo
1)"-1], VO=C2J+C22X+C23X , dJ=c24+c25x+c2!iX , d2=c27+c2s,X.
(13)
28 coefficients concerning the formulas above can be Z
assigned values according to table. N
Wn = W0 (Zn)
C. Wind Speed Verification o
Wind speeds retrieved from SAR images are 10m height (14)
above the sea surface, so we used QuikSCA T wind data,
 where Vo ' Wo is average speed, average wind power 1 3 1 2 1 --2
q=[(-pv )x(-nD )]xc =-nc W70D
2 4 p 4 p
density at the height of Zo, vn ' W" is average speed, average (15)
wind power density at the height of Zn, a is power exponent of
wind speed according to height change (this is also called where q is the unit capacity of wind power generator, p is
power exponent of wind speed profile for short), N is power the air density, W 70 is the average wind power density at 70m,
exponent of wind power density according to height change cp is the efficiency of wind power generator (generally 25%-
(this is also called power exponent of wind energy profile for 50% [22]) and in this study the value of cp is 25%, D is the
short). impeller diameter of wind power generator (generally 70-80m
of wind turbine wheel hub at the height of 70m) and in this
Values of a and N are related to surface roughness and the study the value of D is 70m.
power exponent of wind speed profile becomes smaller from
inland to coastal area [18]. According to China's architectural IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
structure load specification, the value of a is 0.12 and N is
about three times as a, so in this study the value of N is 0.36 A. Wind Speed Retrieval Results
[19, 20]. We firstly processed data filtering, radiometric calibration
and terrain correction of ERS-2 SAR images by NEST
Unit capacity of wind power generator could be figured
software. Secondly, we figured out low-frequency band to
out based on utilization efficiency of wind power generator
retrieve wind direction existing 180 0 confusion. Thirdly, we
and average wind power density at 70m calculated according
determined the final wind direction according to QuiSCAT
to power exponent of wind energy profile. The equation is as
wind data on the same day. Fourthly, based on retrieved wind
follows [21]:
direction, we retrieved wind speed upon CMOD5 model. Wind
speed retrieval results are shown in Figure 3.
120'55'E 120'55'E 121'0'E 120'55'E 121'0'E 120'55'E 121'0'E

N
L..._...L-
....J _-'-
---'__.... �
Wind speed ( mls )
10
A
20
_1I1111I::==-___ kl11
I 2 J 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Figure 3. Wind speed retrieved from SAR images

(a)2007-01-07; (b)2007-02-11;(c)2007-04-22; (d)2007-05-11;
(e)2007-08-05; (02007-09-09; (g)2007-1O-14; (h)2007-12-23

As illustrated in Figure 3, wind speeds retrieved from In this study, we used QuikSCAT wind data to verify wind
ERS-2 SAR images are mainly between 0 to 20 m/s. From speed retrieved from ERS-2 SAR images. Due to the low
spatial distribution aspect, wind speeds of different places spatial resolution of QuiSCAT wind data (generally 2 to 3
change vastly and randomly, but there are 3 to 8 areas of points in the study area), we verified 19 points in all during 8
larger wind speeds every month. From a time scale aspect, in time periods. Figure 4 shows the wind speed verification
2007, the wind speed of study area decreases first and results.
increases later in seasons. Specifically, the wind speed
decreases gradually from January to September and increases
later. In addition, the wind speed in September is lowest for
the wind speed is almost between 1 to 2m/s. As a result, when
we develop and utilize wind energy resources, we should pay
more attention to regional variations of wind energy resources
and wind energy storage in different seasons.
B. Wind Speed V erification Results
 6 300-400 7.0 Very good
7 400-1000 9. 4 Very good

1200SS'E 121"aE 120"SS'E 121"O'E

(b)

!'
z

:::

Figure 4. V erification of wind speed retrieved from SAR images

Figure 4 shows that wind speeds retrieved from ERS-2

SAR images are close to QuiSCAT wind speeds. The retrieval
errors are small, for their absolute values are all between 0 to 1
m/s. Specifically, the number of absolute values of errors
among 0 to 0.5m/s is 16, accounting for 84.21 %. The number
of absolute values of errors among 0.5 to Im/s is 3, accounting
for 15.79%. Furthermore, retrieval errors are mainly caused by
CMOD5 model errors, IDW interpolation errors and time
errors between ERS-2 SAR images and QuikSCAT wind data.
In a word, it is feasible and relatively accurate to retrieve wind
speed from ERS-2 SAR images based on low-frequency band
method and CMOD5 model.
c. Wind Energy Resources and Wind Power Generation
Evaluation Results
In order to evaluate wind energy resources and wind power
generation, we firstly figured out wind power density at 10m
covering the whole study area and classified wind power
density at 10m according to Table I. Secondly, we evaluated
wind energy resources based on wind power density and its
classification. Thirdly, we picked up areas of abundant wind
energy resources. Fourthly, upon wind power density at 70m
reckoned by power exponent of wind energy profile, we
calculated unit capacity of wind power generator according to
Formula 15 to evaluate wind power generation. The evaluation
results are shown in Figure 5.
As shown in Figure 5, average wind power density of the
study area is from l.22 to 929.51 W/m2 and the level of wind
power density is from 1 to 7 according to Tabel I. From spatial
distribution aspect, the wind energy resources are abundant in
three areas of upper center and left-bottom center.
Consequently it has huge potential to construct wind power
generation in these three areas. Furthermore, if wind power
construction are carried out, the unit capacity of wind power
generator calculated according to Formula 14 and Formula 15
could reach to 442.84,118l.02 and 149l.31 kW.
TABLE I. WIND POWER DENSITY LEVEL (IOM HEIGHT ABOVE
THE SEA SURFACE)
Reference value of Application
Wind power
Level annual average wind potential in wind
density(W1m2)
s�eed�m/s2 �ower generation
1 <100 4.4
2 100-150 5. 1
3 150-200 5. 6 Relatively good
4 200-250 6.0 Good
5 250-300 6.4 Very good
Classification of wind power density Unit capacity ofwiod powcr gcncrator( kW)
929.51 '?442.84 1 1 81.02 1491.31
I 2 J 4 ;-S
Figure 5. Evaluation results of wind energy resources and wind power generation
(a)Wind power density; (b) Classification of wind power density and
unit capacity of wind power generator
v. CONCLUSIONS
Based on the study area in the eastern sea area of
Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, this study firstly retrieved wind
field from 8 scenes of ERS-2 SAR images in 2007. Then,
wind speed retrieval results were verified by QuikSCAT wind
data. Lastly, wind energy resources and wind power
generation were evaluated upon retrieved wind speed. The
main conclusions are summarized below.
(1) It is feasible to retrieve wind direction according to
low-frequency band method and retrieve wind speed based on
CMOD5 model from ERS-2 SAR images. Compared with
QuikSCA T wind data, the retrieval results are relatively
accurate.
(2) Retrieved wind speeds are mainly from 0 to 20 m/s.
The wind speed of different area changes largely and
randomly in space. Besides, the wind speed of study area
decreases first and increases later in seasons. Therefore, we
should pay more attention to regional variations of wind
energy resources and wind energy storage in different seasons.
(3) The average wind power density of the study area is
between l.22 to 929.51W/m2 and wind power density level is
from 1 to 7. Moreover, the wind energy resources are
abundant in three areas of upper center and left-bottom center
and the unit capacity of wind power generator could reach to
442.84, 118l.02 and 149l.31 kW.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research is supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (NO. 41171325 and 11103408) and the
Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University
(NCET-12-0264).
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