Browsing by Keyword "Wind energy potential"
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Item Calculation of Lebanon offshore wind energy potential using ERA5 reanalysis: impact of seasonal air density changes(IEEE. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2019) Ibarra-Berastegi, Gabriel; Gonzalez-Roji, Santos J.; Ulazia, Alain; Carreno-Medinabeitia, Sheila; Saenz, JonIn this work, data from the ERA5 reanalysis (2010-2017) have been used to estimate the seasonal offshore wind energy potential for the Lebanese coast. Additionally, for this estimation, the effect of seasonal changes of air density has been incorporated. As a reference, the SIEMENS 160/6 turbine has been adopted and wind energy potential has been expressed as the capacity factor (CF) associated to this turbine. The spatial distribution of CF provides an idea of available wind energy potential in the Lebanese coast. The impact of seasonal air density changes has been assessed as percentage reduction in this indicator. In summer, the CF reduction due to high temperatures and lower air density, reaches in some Southern regions of the Lebanese coast to values around 5.5%. The use of such reanalyses is likely to increase in the future, thus making consultancy work easier since a lot of computational work with state-of-the-art meteorological models like WRF or MC2 (used to draw the National Wind Atlas of Lebanon) may not be necessary. Therefore, most likely in the future, for wind potential estimations, rather than heavy calculation efforts, the know-how for consultancy companies will focus into deeper analysis and interpretation of readily-available data from reanalyses.Item Global estimations of wind energy potential considering seasonal air density changes(Elsevier Ltd, 2019-11-15) Ulazia, Alain; Sáenz, Jon; Ibarra-Berastegi, Gabriel; González-Rojí, Santos J.; Carreno-Madinabeitia, SheilaThe literature typically considers constant annual average air density when computing the wind energy potential of a given location. In this work, the recent reanalysis ERA5 is used to obtain global seasonal estimates of wind energy production that include seasonally varying air density. Thus, errors due to the use of a constant air density are quantified. First, seasonal air density changes are studied at the global scale. Then, wind power density errors due to seasonal air density changes are computed. Finally, winter and summer energy production errors due to neglecting the changes in air density are computed by implementing the power curve of the National Renewable Energy Laboratorys 5 MW turbine. Results show relevant deviations for three variables (air density, wind power density, and energy production), mainly in the middle-high latitudes (Hudson Bay, Siberia, Patagonia, Australia, etc.). Locations with variations from −6% to 6% are identified from summers to winters in the Northern Hemisphere. Additionally, simulations with the aeroelastic code FAST for the studied turbine show that instantaneous power production can be affected by greater than 20% below the rated wind speed if a day with realistically high or low air density values is compared for the same turbulent wind speed.