Niels Gylling Mortensen

Wind power meteorology. Part I: climate and turbulence

Wind power meteorology has evolved as an applied science firmly founded on boundary layer meteorology but with strong links to climatology and geography. It concerns itself with three main areas: siting of wind turbines, regional wind resource assessment and short-term prediction of the wind resource. The history, status and perspectives of wind power meteorology are presented, with emphasis on physical considerations and on its practical application. Following a global view of the wind resource, the elements of boundary layer meteorology which are most important for wind energy are reviewed: wind profiles and shear, turbulence and gust, and extreme winds. Copyright

Wind power meteorology. Part II: siting and models

The data used in wind power meteorology stem mainly from three sources: on-site wind measurements, the synoptic networks and the reanalysis projects. Wind climate analysis, wind resource estimation and siting further require a detailed description of the topography of the terrain—with respect to the roughness of the surface, near-by obstacles and orographical features. Finally, the meteorological models used for estimation and prediction of the wind are described; their classification, inputs, limitations and requirements. A comprehensive modelling concept, meso/microscale modelling, is introduced and a procedure for short-term prediction of the wind resource is described. * c 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Preface The kind invitation by John Wiley & Sons to write an overview article on wind power meteorology prompted us to lay down the fundamental principles as well as attempting to reveal the state of the art— but also to disclose what we think are the most important issues to stake further research eAorts on. Unfortunately, such an eAort calls for a lengthy historical, philosophical, physical, mathematical and statistical elucidation, resulting in an exorbitant requirement for writing space. By permission of the publisher we are able to present our eAort in full, but in two parts—Part I: Climate and Turbulence and Part II: Siting and Models. We kindly ask the reader to be indulgent towards inconsistencies, which are inevitable in the process of dividing the work of five authors. An ideal review paper is objective; however, this requires it to be written by someone not personally active in the field. This is contradictory to the provision of the most up-to-date knowledge. Therefore, because all five authors are employees of Riso National Laboratory, their view is to a large extent the ‘Riso view on things’. It is our hope that these views are shared by many, but we invite discussions on any subject in the review. Part I is an attempt to give an account of the advance of wind power meteorology, from the early days of modest wind turbines till today’s massive plans for large-scale power production by modern megawattsize turbines. The historical development of the concept of ‘wind atlas’ is portrayed, followed by an