Estimating air density using observations and re-analysis outputs for wind energy purposes

Rogier Ralph Floors*, Morten Nielsen

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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    Abstract

    A method to estimate air density as a function of elevation for wind energy resource assessments is presented. The current practice of using nearby measurements of pressure and temperature is compared with a method that uses re-analysis data. It is found that using re-analysis data to estimate air density gives similar or smaller mean absolute errors compared to using measurements that were on average located 40 km away. A method to interpolate power curves that are valid for different air densities is presented. The new model is implemented in the industry-standard model for wind resource assessment and compared with the current version of that model and shown to lead to more accurate assessment of the air density at different elevations.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number2038
    JournalEnergies
    Volume12
    Issue number11
    Number of pages12
    ISSN1996-1073
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2019

    Keywords

    • Air density
    • Wind energy
    • Power curves
    • WAsP
    • ERA5
    • CFSR

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