1. Briefing notes
Presenter
Official launch of Wind Atlas for South Africa (WASA) Project, Phase I book, announcement of WASA II; REN21 Global Status Report for 2014; and the Renewable Energy Prospects Africa:
RE map 2030 analysis
Sheraton, 7 Sept 2015

2. Outline Historical Wind Atlases for South Africa
WASA Phase 1 methodology
WASA Phase 1 main results
WASA Phase 1 Application
WASA Phase 1 Highlights
WASA II
Conclusion
Acknowledgements and Implementation team

3. Historical South African Wind Atlases
DME; R. Diab 1995
SARERD, 2001
Tripod Review of Wind Energy Resources in South Africa (2002) concluded:
These studies are inconclusive and under estimate the true wind energy potential as weather measurement stations at 10 m were used and in may cases these stations are shaded by buildings etc from measuring the true wind potential; and
Recommended that a dedicated wind energy measurement program be
undertaken to confirm South Africa’s true wind energy potential

4. Wind Atlas for South Africa (WASA Phase 1):
The Wind Atlas for South Africa is a Capacity Development and Research Cooperation Initiative of the
South African Department of Energy (DoE).
Phase 1 (2009 – 2014) covers Western Cape and parts of Northern and Eastern Cape provinces and were funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) R8 million with UNDP support through the South African Wind Energy Programme (SAWEP) and co-funded by Danida (DKK9.9 million).
SANEDI (South African National Energy Development Institute)
executing agency – contracting the implementing partners
coordination and dissemination
UCT CSAG (Climate System Analysis Group, University of Cape Town)
mesoscale modelling
CSIR (Built Environment, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research)
Measurements, microscale modelling, application
SAWS (South African Weather Service)
extreme wind assessment
DTU Wind Energy* (Dept of Wind Energy, Technical University of Denmark)
partner in all activities

5. WASA Phase 1 Methodology
Six work packages (WPs)
WP1 Mesoscale Modelling
WP2 Wind Measurements
WP3 Microscale Modelling
WP4 Application
WP5 Extreme Wind Atlas
WP6 Documentation & Dissemination, see:

6. WASA Main Results: Wind Measurements for Verification “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”
10 minutes data and graphs available online:
Data download:
Table showing the mean wind speed for some of the WASA sites for the first year and after three years’ measurements with an excellent data recovery rate. The measured wind data is used to create the statistics of the wind at each of the WASA meteorological stations that are used to verify the Numerical Wind Atlas.

7. WASA Main Results cont: Verified Numerical Wind Atlas (VNWA)
VNWA for South Africa, based on WRF, launched in April 2014 (generalised wind climate – flat terrain, 3 km x 3 km grid spacing) (WRF Weather Research & Forecasting model)

8. WASA Main Results cont: Extreme Wind Atlas
1:50 yr 10 min wind speed 10 m above ground level (standard conditions)

9. Application: Extreme Wind Atlas
Providing input data 1:50 yr 10 min average wind speed (standard conditions) in calculating the 10 minute average wind speed at hub height that is used to determine the Wind Turbine Class that would stand the extreme winds.
Outside energy sector – Informing national building standards, since wind constitutes most critical environmental loading affecting structural design of built environment in South Africa

10. Application cont. Wind time series data
The wind time series are particularly useful:
to study the annual, seasonal and diurnal variations in wind resources;
as input to power system modelling;
to study the geographical cross correlation of wind across South
Africa; and
for long-term corrections of the wind resources given by the WRF
wind climate files.

11. Application cont. WASA Large Scale High Resolution Wind Resource map
Large-scale high-resolution wind resource map launched in April 2014 (local wind climate, 250 m grid spacing) with the mean wind speed

12. WASA Large Scale High Resolution Wind Resource map usage
The high-resolution wind resource map depicts the local wind climate that a wind turbine would encounter. It also offers important benefits for developers, policy makers, utilities and the industry, including the following:
Saves time and costs as the bankability of a potential wind farm site can now be estimated and physical wind measurements are only undertaken for bankable wind sites.
Levels the playing field between small and large industry players to identify and develop wind hot spots.
Assists Government in estimating the real wind resource potential.
Identifies possible wind development zones in line with the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) studies or in line with frameworks. The DEA’s SEA for solar photovoltaic and wind is an example of such an SEA study and is available at co.za/nationalwindsolarsea/
Long-term grid planning to connect with high-potential wind development areas.
Wind farm planning in positioning (micro siting) the wind turbines for optimal wind exposures.

13. WASA Phase 1 Highlights
Website user statistics captured through registration on
1759 registered users from 66 countries with downloads (April 2015)
Some projects, programs etc referencing, making use of WASA:
Dept of Environmental Affairs (DEA) Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) study making use of WASA in the identification of wind development zones (
World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme, Renewable Energy Resource Mapping Initiative Renewable Energy Mapping: Wind in Pakistan, South Asia Region, Project ID: P146140, Selection:
Palestinian Energy Authority Request for Proposal for the Energy Section Assistance in Palestine, Phase V (RFP No. Phase V-PEA/CS-W).
WASA is a technical partner and included in the IRENA Global Atlas for Renewable Energy ( and used in the verification of the EUDP Global Wind Atlas (globalwindatlas.com) to feature in the  IRENA Global Atlas for Renewable Energy.

14. WASA Phase 1 Highlights cont.
Feasibility of the WWF Renewable Energy Vision South Africa
CSIR, SANEDI Eskom PV Wind Aggregation study (to be presented at SAIREC)
Danish RE EE Program: System adequacy and reserve margins with increasing levels of variable generation
Courses at Department of Wind Energy, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), making use of WASA: WasP, WAsP e-learning courses, DTU course on Planning and Development of Wind Farms
Andrea Hahmann (DTU Wind Energy):” The WRF- based WASA wind atlas is the first wind atlas study where the generalisation has been carried out on the WRF-model output with excellent results.”
WASA in the press:

15. WASA II
Phase 2 (2014 to 2018) to cover the remaining areas of Eastern Cape, KZN and Free State provinces and is funded by the Government of Denmark (DKK 12 million) with an additional 5 wind measurement masts to become operational by Sept/Oct 2015.
SAWEP Phase 2 (USD 3.5 mill) include GEF funding with UNDP support, amongst other, for an interim WASA II Wind Atlas and Resource map (2016) as well as expanding WASA II to cover the remaining areas of the Northern Cape province.
The Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) that was characterized and parameterized for wind resource assessment during WASA Phase 1 will be used and further refined in WASA II.

16. Conclusion State of the Art Wind Atlas method
Public domain through websites
Transparent methodology no “black box”
Verified with proper wind measurements, traceable
Data + Application, Guidelines, Training
Level playing field
Save time and money
Not a substitution for mandatory wind measurements
(information, presentations etc)
(wind measurement mast online graphs)
(final reports, guides, data downloads)
WRF (WRF wind forecasting)
Numerical Wind Atlas database access through Tadpole

17. WASA Implementation team
Work package
SANEDI
CSIR
DTU
SAWS
UCT (GSAC)
WP1
Mesoscale
modelling
Andrea Hahmann
Chris lennard
Students:
Brendan Argent
Chris Broderick, Teboho Nchaba
Tich Mukunga.
WP2
Wind Measurements
Eric Prinsloo
Eugene Mabille
WP3 & 4
Microscale
Modelling & Application
Stefan Szewczuk
Jens Carsten Hansen
Niels Gylling Mortensen
WP5
Extreme Wind Atlas
Hans E. Jørgensen
Xiaoli Guo Larsén
Andries Kruger
WP6
Documentation
& Dissemination
Thembakazi Mali
Andre Otto

18. Acknowledgements WASA Phase 1 Funders:
Global Environment Facility (GEF) with UNDP support (R8 million)
Co funded by Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) (DKK9.9 million) through the Danish Embassy
WASA Project Steering Committee (PSC):
Noma Qase (DoE), Surprise Zwane (DEA), Dee Fischer (DEA), Somila Xosa (DST), Tumi Mailula (DST), Maria Mbengashe (UNDP), T Mali (SANEDI), A Otto (SANEDI)
Past members: Carsten Laugesen, Winnifred Mandhlazi, Dominic Milazi, Jacques Pretorius
WASA Phase 1 Contributors:
Claire L Vincent (DTU), Jake Badger (DTU), Joakim Refslund (DTU), Patrick Volker (DTU), Karen Enevoldsen (DTU), Michael Rasmussen (DTU), Poul Hummelshøj (DTU), Steen Arne Sørensen (DTU), Søren W Lund (DTU), Mark C Kelly (DTU), Morten Nielsen (DTU), Tom Cronin (DTU), Charlotte McBride (SAWS), Snyman Sekele (SAWS), Yvette Spamer (formerly with CSIR), Adam Goliger (CSIR), Johan Retief (US)
South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA): Johan van den Berg (CEO) and team

19. Minister of Energy, Tina Joemat-Pettersson (speech delivered by Acting DG at the Windaba 2014)
“I am now happy to say the key results of the First Phase that have been independently verified by a team of scientists working on the Wind Atlas project of South Africa using both numerically modelled data and practical observational methods and analysis, confirm that South Africa has an excellent wind resource”
The WASA Phase 1 Book can be downloaded here
[link go live on Monday 7 Sept 2015]