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How to model the wind?

Etienne Cheynet talks about the fundamental principle used to estimate the energy production of a wind farm.

The lecture introduces the fundamental principle used to estimate the energy production of a wind farm. The first part of the lecture defines the fluctuating and means wind speed and illustrates how these components affect the design of a wind turbine. The second part of the lecture focuses on the modelling of the mean wind speed. Analytical and numerical models are discussed. The definition of wind atlas and capacity factors are introduced as well as the concept of wind resource assessment.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the lecture, you should be able to:

  • List some of the analytical mean wind speed profiles commonly used in wind energy.
  • Explain the difference between the fluctuating wind velocity and the mean wind speed.
  • Describe what is a wind atlas.

Reflections.

  • Explain with your own words what is a wind atlas.

Suggested literature

Was this interesting and you want to learn more? This is a book that takes you a few steps further. You need to have some technical insight in order to enjoy it, but it does not need to be from offshore wind energy:

Anderson, C. (2020). Wind turbines: Theory and practice. Cambridge University Press.

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Introduction to Offshore Wind Energy

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FutureLearn - Learning For Life

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