Distributed wind resource assessment: Comparing measured annual energy production with predictions from computational fluid dynamics

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 657-672
Author(s):  
Devon L Martindale ◽  
Thomas L Acker

The US Department of Energy’s Distributed Wind Resource Assessment Workshop identified predicting the annual energy production of a kilowatt-sized wind turbine as a key challenge. This article presents the methods and results for predicting the annual energy production of two 2.1 kW Skystream 3.7 wind turbines using computational fluid dynamics, in this case Meteodyn WT. When compared with actual production data, annual energy production values were uniformly underpredicted, with errors ranging from 1% to in excess of 30%, depending on the solver settings and boundary conditions. The most accurate of the simulations with errors consistently less than 10% were achieved when using recommended solver settings of neutral atmospheric stability, and roughness values derived from the US National Land Cover Database. The software was used to create an annual energy production map for the modeling domain, which could be a valuable tool in estimating the energy output and economic value of a proposed wind turbine.

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1899
Author(s):  
Jompob Waewsak ◽  
Chana Chancham ◽  
Somphol Chiwamongkhonkarn ◽  
Yves Gagnon

This paper presents the wind resource assessment of the southernmost region of Thailand using atmospheric and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) wind flow modeling. The predicted wind data by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) atmospheric modeling, assimilated to a virtual met mast, along with high-resolution topographic and roughness digital data, are then used as the main input for the CFD microscale wind flow modeling and high resolution wind resource mapping at elevations of 80 m, 100 m, 120 m, and 140 m agl. Numerical results are validated using measured wind data. Results show that the potential area where the wind speeds at 120 m agl are above 8.0 m/s is 86 km2, corresponding to a technical power potential in the order of 300 MW. The installation of wind power plants in the areas with the best wind resource could generate 690 GWh/year of electricity, thus avoiding greenhouse gas emissions of 1.2 million tonnes CO2eq/year to the atmosphere. On the other hand, developing power plants with International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Class IV wind turbines in areas of lower wind resource, but with easier access, could generate nearly 3000 GWh/yr of energy, with a CO2eq emissions avoidance of 5 million tonnes CO2eq on a yearly basis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 875 ◽  
pp. 94-99
Author(s):  
Jia Yi Jin ◽  
Pavlo Sokolov ◽  
Muhammad S. Virk

This paper describes a case study of wind resource assessment in cold climate region. One-year SCADA data from a wind park has been used to make a comparison with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based numerical simulations of wind resource assessment and Annual Energy Production (AEP). To better understand the wind turbine wake flow effects on the energy production, ‘Jessen wake model ‘is used for the numerical simulations. Results show wind resource maps at different elevations, where wind turbine wake flow effects the wind turbine performance and resultant power production. CFD simulations provided a good insight of the flow behavior across each wind turbine, which helped to better understand the wind turbine wake flow effects on wind turbine performance and annual energy production. A good agreement is found between numerical simulations and field SCADA data analysis in this study.


2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 439-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanan Al Buflasa ◽  
David Infield ◽  
Simon Watson ◽  
Murray Thomson

The geographical distribution of wind speed (the wind atlas) for the kingdom of Bahrain is presented, based on measured data and on calculations undertaken using WAsP,. The data used were recorded by the Meteorological Directorate at a weather station situated at Bahrain International Airport, taken on an hourly basis for a period of time extended for ten years. These data indicate an annual mean wind speed of 4.6 m/s at 10 m height and mean Weibull scale and shape parameters C and k of 5.2 m/s and 1.9 respectively. At a typical wind turbine hub height of sixty metres, these values are extrapolated to 6.9 m/s, 7.8 m/s and 1.8 respectively, which suggests that the area has a good wind resource. The wind atlas shows that several locations in the less populated central and southern regions of the main island of the archipelago of Bahrain are potentially suitable for wind energy production.


2008 ◽  
Vol 130 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Lackner ◽  
Anthony L. Rogers ◽  
James F. Manwell

This paper presents a mathematical framework to properly account for uncertainty in wind resource assessment and wind energy production estimation. A meteorological tower based wind measurement campaign is considered exclusively, in which measure-correlate-predict is used to estimate the long-term wind resource. The evaluation of a wind resource and the subsequent estimation of the annual energy production (AEP) is a highly uncertain process. Uncertainty arises at all points in the process, from measuring the wind speed to the uncertainty in a power curve. A proper assessment of uncertainty is critical for judging the feasibility and risk of a potential wind energy development. The approach in this paper provides a framework for an accurate and objective accounting of uncertainty and, therefore, better decision making when assessing a potential wind energy site. It does not investigate the values of individual uncertainty sources. Three major aspects of site assessment uncertainty are presented here. First, a method is presented for combining uncertainty that arises in assessing the wind resource. Second, methods for handling uncertainty sources in wind turbine power output and energy losses are presented. Third, a new method for estimating the overall AEP uncertainty when using a Weibull distribution is presented. While it is commonly assumed that the uncertainty in the wind resource should be scaled by a factor between 2 and 3 to yield the uncertainty in the AEP, this work demonstrates that this assumption is an oversimplification and also presents a closed form solution for the sensitivity factors of the Weibull parameters.


2020 ◽  
pp. 014459872093158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Sumair ◽  
Tauseef Aized ◽  
Syed Asad Raza Gardezi ◽  
Muhammad Mahmood Aslam Bhutta ◽  
Syed Muhammad Sohail Rehman ◽  
...  

Continuous probability distributions have long been used to model the wind data. No single distribution can be declared accurate for all locations. Therefore, a comparison of different distributions before actual wind resource assessment should be carried out. Current work focuses on the application of three probability distributions, i.e. Weibull, Rayleigh, and lognormal for wind resource estimation at six sites along the coastal belt of Pakistan. Four years’ (2015–2018) wind data measured each 60-minutes at 50 m height for six locations were collected from Pakistan Meteorological Department. Comparison of these distributions was done based on coefficient of determination ( R2), root mean square error, and mean absolute percentage deviation. Comparison showed that Weibull distribution is the most accurate followed by lognormal and Rayleigh, respectively. Wind power density ( PD) was evaluated and it was found that Karachi has the highest wind speed and PD as 5.82 m/s and 162.69 W/m2, respectively, while Jiwani has the lowest wind speed and PD as 4.62 m/s and 76.76 W/m2, respectively. Furthermore, feasibility of annual energy production (AEP) was determined using six turbines. It was found that Vestas V42 shows the worst performance while Bonus 1300/62 is the best with respect to annual energy production and Bonus 600/44 is the most economical. Finally, sensitivity analysis was carried out.


2020 ◽  
Vol 186 ◽  
pp. 03003
Author(s):  
Jia Yi Jin ◽  
Rizwan Ghani ◽  
Muhammad S. Virk

This paper describes a case study of wind turbine wake loss effects on wind resource assessment in cold region. One year wind park SCADA data is used. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based numerical simulations are carried out for wind resource assessment and estimation of resultant Annual Energy Production (AEP). Numerical results are compared with the field SCADA data, where a good agreement is found. To better understand the wind flow physics and effects of wind turbine turbulence wake loss effects, three different wake loss models are used for the numerical simulations, where results with wake model is found in best agreement with the AEP estimation from field SCADA data. A detailed comparison of all wind turbines is also presented with the gross AEP. A preliminary case study about wind park layout optimization has also been carried out which shows that AEP can be improved by optimizing the wind park layout and CFD simulations can be used as a tool in this regards.


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