Wind Resource Assessment

Site Measurements
Mount on
booms Measure at Include hub
away from several height if
mast heights possible

Pressure and temperature

desirable

Logger – can be with Wind speed

modem & direction
Anemometers
Typical cup anemometers
 Cup Anemometer has faster response to increase in wind
speed than decrease - overspeeding

=d/v
d=distance
constant (<5m)
τ
Anemometer response

Non-linear response at
low wind speeds <1m/s

Wind tunnel wind speed

Windvanes
• Potentiometer wind
vanes
• Series of discrete reed
switches
• Measure voltage –
calibrate  direction
Temperature and Pressure
• Temperature – PRT
• Aspirated with
radiation shield
• Pressure - Digital
barometer
• Normally need signal
processing
• Useful for air density
corrections
Presenting Wind Statistics – The
Wind Rose 0
40%
330 30

> 20 m/s
30%

300 60
20%
16% 10% 15 - 20 m/s

10%

10 - 15m/s
270 0% 90

0.5%
5 - 10 m/s

240 120

36.5% 0 - 5 m/s

3%
210 150
36%
7%
180 10% 26% 33%
 Measure-Correlate-Predict
Potential Wind
Met Site
Farm Site

Met Data Correlations Measured

Concurrent
Data
Period

Correlation Prediction
Historic Met Data
s
Period

Assumes wind climate will not change over lifetime of wind farm!
 Measure on Site
• Anemometers at 2+ heights (calibrated)
• Wind vane at 1+ height (calibrated)
• Weatherproof data logger
• Visit site regularly
• Measure 10 min averages
• Quality control data
 Met. Office Measurements –
Short Term
• 10m standard height
• Wind speeds rounded up (normally) to
integer knots
• Wind direction to nearest 10 deg
• Ten-minute averages on the hour
 Met. Office Measurements –
Long Term Statistics
• Frequency distributions
• Number of hours wind speed fell within 1
knot bins between 0-100 knots
• Grouped by 36 x 10 deg direction bins
• Quality control data
 Physical Models
• Solve equations for boundary layer flow with
varying complexity:
– Continuity equation
– Conservation of momentum
– Conservation of energy
• Steady state
• Allow translation of wind climate at one point to
another
• Turbulence approximated using empirical
equations (closure schemes)
• Use digitised terrain height, roughness and
obstacles
 Jackson and Hunt Theory
• Solves continuity and momentum equations
• Linear assumptions
• Fourier transform to produce analytical
solutions
• Mixing length turbulence closure
• Mason and Sykes extend 2D theory to 3D
• Terrain perturbs logarithmic profile
 Wind Speedup over a Hill
Upstream anemometer measures Uo at Δzp above flat ground

What does anemometer measure on top of the hill at height

Δzp above ground?

UT(Δzp)

Uo(Δzp) Δzp
Δzp L h
h/2
 Simple Guidelines for Speedup
Over Hills
Perturbed downstream wind speed
Unperturbed upstream wind speed

( ) ( )
UT z p = U 0 z p + UT + U R
Height above ground
Change due to Change due to
topographic roughness
feature change
Perturbation Due to Topography

UT = SU0 (z p )

Speed-up factor ΔS:

S = Smax exp(− Az p / L )
Where:
Smax = Bh / L
 Parameters for Different
Topographic Features
Terrain Type A B
2D hills (ridges) 3.0 2.0
3D hills 4.0 1.6
2D escarpments 2.5 0.8
2D rolling terrain 3.5 1.55
3D rolling terrain 4.4 1.1
 Perturbation Due to Step Change
in Roughness
Downwind roughness Initial upstream roughness


 ln z p z0
U R = 
 •  ln1 z01   − 1U (z )
  lnz z   0 p
 ln1 z0    p 01  

Internal Boundary Layer Height δ1:

1 z0 = 0.75(r z0 ) 0.8

Distance downwind of roughness change

 Internal Boundary Layer
30

25
‘Feels’ effect of old roughness
20
Step change in roughness
15
‘Feels’ effect of
10
new roughness
δ1
5 z01 z0
0
-50 0 50 100 150 200 250
-5
 Assumptions
• Gentle slopes (<0.35)
• Moderate/strong winds (>6m/s)
• Horizontal length scales ~1km
• A step change in roughness
• Simple topographic features
• Neutral stability