1. Environmental Business Council December 17, 2009
Wind Resource Assessment Patrick Quinlan University of Massachusetts Wind Energy Center
Environmental Business Council
December 17, 2009

2. Wind and the Turbine Performance Design
Force related to square of wind speed
Extremes affect ultimate loads
Turbulence and means affect fatigue

3. Time Scale of Winds
Wind varies in time, space, direction

4. Wind Shear: Power Law Power law model Exponent of 1/7
often assumed, usually much higher

5. Wind Data Acquisition Systems
Typical wind data collection system for resource measurement
Sensors + backups, at multiple heights
Tower
Data recorder (“Logger”); eg., UMass Minuteman
Quality Assurance -- eg., UMass AQUA
Data analysis and reporting

6. Sample Wind Data Acquisition System

7. Wind Sensors Cup anemometers - Frequency output
Wind vanes - Voltage output
Maximum 40 anemometer and wind vane

8. Remote Sensing: SODAR and LIDAR
Measures to high elevations without a tower
Measures Doppler shift reflected from density inhomogeneities or particle reflections in atmosphere
Good height resolution

9. Presentation of Averaged Data
Time series of speed
Time series of direction
Wind frequency rose
Wind speed rose
Histogram of wind speeds
Turbulence intensity vs. wind speed
Wind shear profiles
Diurnal averages

10. Wind Roses Wind Frequency Rose Wind Speed Rose
Fraction of winds from direction sectors
Wind Speed Rose
Mean wind speed from each direction sector

11. Histograms
Histogram of wind speeds

12. Turbulence Intensity
Turbulence intensity vs. wind speed

13. Wind Shear
Wind shear and wind shear models

14. Diurnal Averages

15. University of Massachusetts
Questions?
Patrick Quinlan
University of Massachusetts
Wind Energy Center