Wind resource estimates with an analog ensemble approach

The wind resource and energy assessment is key to a wind farm development project. It allows for establishing the feasibility and economic viability of the project over the typical 10- to 30-year lifetime of a wind farm. Recent studies show that the accuracy of assessments has substantial room for improvement. Estimating and reducing uncertainty is important to secure financing and ensure the confidence of investors. A new method is proposed and demonstrated for the long-term estimation of the wind speeds at a target site, a key step in assessments. The method is based on ensembles made of analogs between a short-term observational record from the target site and a long-term historical record from a nearby site or an atmospheric model. It provides a high-quality long-term wind resource estimate, characterized by an accurate wind speed time series and frequency distribution. It also provides a reliable estimate of the uncertainty based on the actual physical processes determining the current atmospheric flow rather than the climatological wind distribution. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.