Offshore wind speed and wind power characteristics for ten locations in Aegean and Ionian Seas

This paper utilizes wind speed data measured at 3 and 10 m above water surface level using buoys at 10 stations in Ionian and Aegean Seas to understand the behaviour of wind and thereafter energy yield at these stations using 5 MW rated power offshore wind turbine. With wind power densities of 971 and 693 W/m(2) at 50 m above water surface level, Mykonos and Lesvos were found to be superb and outstanding windy sites with wind class of 7 and 6, respectively. Other locations like Athos, Santorini and Skyros with wind power density of more than 530 W/m(2) and wind class of 5 were found to be the excellent sites. Around 15-16% higher winds were observed at 10 m compared to that at 3 m. Lower values of wind speed were found during summer months and higher during winter time in most of the cases reported in the present work. Slightly decreasing (similar to 2% per year) linear trends were observed in annual mean wind speed at Lesvos and Santorini. These trends need to be verified with more data from buoys or from nearby onshore meteorological stations. At Athos and Mykonos, increasing linear trends were estimated. At all the stations the chosen wind turbine could produce energy for more than 70% of the time. The wind speed distribution was found to be well represented by Weibull parameters obtained using Maximum likelihood method compared to WAsP and Method of Moments.